
Class _J _^^qU^ 

Copyright N!* 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSrr 



CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 
IN ENGLAND 



Corpus Christi 
Pageants 

IN 

ENGLAND 

By 

M. LYLE SPENCER, PH. D. 

Professor of Rhetoric 

Lawrence College 



NEW YORK 

THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY 
1911 



r^^"^ 



5 



C1 



Cjl, 



Copyright 1911, by 
THE BAKER 8c TAYLOR COMPANY 



Camelot Press, 444-446 Pearl St., New York. 



©CLA303387 



To 

LOIS HILL SPENCER 



PREFACE 

The pleasantest part of an otherwise very 
pleasant task is an opportunity to express my 
gratitude to Mr. Samuel Moore of Harvard Uni- 
versity, to Mr. T. A. Knott of the University of 
Chicago, and to Professor John M. Manly for 
their invaluable assistance in the preparation of 
this book. Much of the material contained in 
chapter five Avas suggested to me, either wholly 
or in part, by Mr. Moore, who was so generous 
as to lend me all his notes and a most valuable 
paper that he had written on the conventions of 
the cyclic drama. To Mr. Knott I am greatly in- 
debted for a careful perusal of the entire book 
and for much advice and friendly criticism. And 
to Professor Manly I am grateful for the first 
suggestion of the work, for full discussions of the 
book in its various stages, and for a most gen- 
erous loan of all his notes on the early drama. 
Without the help of Mr. Moore, Mr. Knott, and 
Professor Manly this volume would not have 
been possible, and I avail myself of this oppor- 
tunity to express my deep appreciation to them 
for their assistance and friendly counsel. 

M. L. S. 
Spartanburg, S. C, 

June, 1911. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. Introductory i 

II. Preparation for the Pageants . . 19 

III. The Corpus Christi Procession . 61 

IV. The Pageants 83 

V. Corpus Christi Staging . . . . 107 

VI. Conventions of the Corpus Christi 

Stage 168 

VII. The Actors and their Costumes . 209 

VIII. The Passing of the Pageants . . 2^8 



CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 
IN ENGLAND 



INTRODUCTORY 

The Early Drama. One of the most fruitful 
fields of inquiry in early English literature in 
recent years has been that concerning the origin 
and development of the religious drama. Scholars 
have unearthed much about the language of the 
plays, about their sources, about dramatic condi- 
tions prior to the first regular theatres, and about 
the manners and the customs of the people in those 
early times. Interesting information of all sorts 
has been brought to light during the course of this 
continued investigation, information that has 
been of value, not only to the special student of 
the medieval English stage, but to every Shak- 
spere lover and every student of the later drama, 
in that it reveals the plays and the pageants in 
which his forefathers before the days of the first 
regular theatres used to find amusement and reli- 
gious instruction. From these early plays we 
have learned how the modern stage has grown 
out of the old Catholic church service and how 

1 



2 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

we have developed our modern mixtures of 
tragedy in the midst of comedy, of comedy 
mingled w^ith tragedy, and that union of pathos 
and humor vi^hich has been so prominent in our 
drama since the days of Shakspere. 

Purpose. Some parts of the subject, hov^rever, 
have not been investigated with as much thor- 
oughness and completeness as others. One field 
not yet adequately understood is that which in- 
cludes the decorations, the management, and the 
general stage business of the Corpus Christi 
pageants. Everybody has known for a long 
time, of course, that the Corpus Christi cars 
often consisted of three important parts, an 
upper stage, a lower stage, and another indef- 
inite part somewhere which was used to repre- 
sent hell, but we have not known definitely al- 
ways how these stages were relatively situated nor 
what their exact relation to each other was. Every- 
body has known, too, that the stages were often 
gorgeously decorated and were well furnished 
with properties and mechanical devices; but the 
precise use of these stages, the multiple decora- 
tions, the easy shift of scenes, and the exact 
methods of representation have never been 
definitely disclosed. And while much has been 
known about dramatic methods at Chester, 
somewhat more, probably, about those at York, 
and still more perhaps about those at Coventry, 
still the general relation to each other of all the 



INTRODUCTORY 3 

Corpus Christi stages in the different towns of 
England has not yet been determined. It is the 
purpose of this study to summarize the work 
that has already been done on this subject and 
to define more clearly if possible the problems 
which have been touched upon but which have 
not yet been worked out thoroughly. This 
volume, then, will concern itself with the cus- 
toms governing the production of the pageants, 
with the relations of the different parts of the 
stage to each other, with the principles of dec- 
oration and the use of propertieb, and with the 
general subject of the actors and their costumes. 
Hindrances. In beginning a study of the 
Corpus Christi pageants in England, however, it 
is first and most of all regrettable that no his- 
torical account of their development is possible, 
because of the loss of so many of the original 
records of this celebrated English festival. Ex- 
cept for the records contained in Thomas Sharp's 
Dissertation on the Pageants or Dramatic Mys- 
teries Anciently performed at Coventry, by the 
Trading Companies of that City (1825) and those 
in his edition for the Abbotsford Club of The Pre- 
sentation in the Temple, A Pageant, as originally 
represented by the Corporation of Weavers in 
Coventry (1836), the majority of our most im- 
portant original documents, and even what copies 
may have existed, seem to have been lost. Sharp's 
plan in both of these volumes was to publish any 



4 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

interesting details that might be illustrative of 
" the vehicle, characters, and dresses of the actors " 
in the *' pageants or dramatic mysteries ", a method 
which makes his books still a mine of valuable in- 
formation to students of the religious drama. But 
further than that, for plays other than those at 
Coventry, investigators in recent years have been 
compelled to rely for all their information on scat- 
tered fragments of pieced-together infoimation 
gathered from imperfect and incomplete accounts 
of the city leet books, of the English trading guilds, 
and from other similar sources. And even in the 
case of the Coventry plays students of to-day are 
hampered by the fact that almost all of Sharp's 
sources were lost in the fire which destroyed the 
Free Reference Library at Birmingham in 1879, 
and that the Coventry play-book itself with all the 
cycle of plays has not yet been discovered, though 
two of its scenes, the Nativity and Slaughter of the 
Innocents and the Presentation in the Temple, have 
survived separately. 

Sources of Information. On the other hand, 
although the loss of so many records has rendered 
impossible any chronological study of the plays, 
one should add that the work of the student has 
been immensely lightened by the many excellent 
reprints and studies of earlier investigators in this 
field, such as Davies, Morris, Furnivall, Manly, 
Smith, Leach, Chambers, Bates, Craig, and others. 
Several of these scholars, it is true, did not have 



INTRODUCTORY 5 

the Corpus Christi pageants particularly in view 
in their work, but their contributions are neverthe- 
less most valuable. Davies's Extracts from the 
Municipal Records of the City of York (1843), for 
example, while purposing particularly " to throw 
light upon the condition of the city [of York], and 
the manners, customs, language, and domestic 
habits and circumstances of its inhabitants ", fur- 
nishes us w^ith much valuable material on the 
Corpus Christi festival in that city. In the same 
way Morris's interest in his Chester during the 
Plantagenet and Tudor Reigns was general rather 
than specific, and he unfortunately devoted only ten 
pages to the " Whitson Plaies ", yet his selections 
from the original MSS are remarkably concise and 
definite and are peculiarly well adapted to illustrat- 
ing the staging of the pageants. In contrast to 
these. Dr. Furnivall v^as always especially inter- 
ested in the drama and has put us under many 
obligations to him for his reprint of the Rogers 
" Breauarye " of Chester and for many other 
valuable helps in the study of Corpus Christi stage 
presentation. Likewise, Miss L. T. Smith in the 
introduction to her edition of the York Mystery 
Plays, and elsewhere, has given many helpful sug- 
gestions, and by publishing the text of the York 
plays has made that cycle accessible for the first 
time. More recently Mr. A. F. Leach has made 
public many of the records of Beverley in his 
Beverley Town Documents and has added much 



6 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

other new and useful information in his contribu- 
tion to the Furnivall Miscellany. Most of all, pos- 
sibly, students of the early drama are indebted to 
Mr. E. K. Chambers for the exhaustive, scholarly, 
and authoritative report of his investigations in the 
tv^^o volumes of his Mediaeval Stage. The chap- 
ters on '* Guild Plays and Parish Plays " and 
^'Moralities, Puppet-plays, Pageants " in the second 
volume, and the various appendices, are invaluable 
to students of the Corpus Christi drama. Miss 
Bates also has given an interesting account of the 
pageants in her little volume on the English Reli- 
gious Drama, and Dr. Craig in his Two Coventry 
Corpus Christi Plays has made the v^ork of Sharp, 
Jeaffreson, and others more accessible than before, 
besides furnishing in his introduction much new 
material about the plays. And so there are others 
whom lack of space forbids mentioning here, but 
to whom thanks are due for their excellent work 
in making the medieval material and records avail- 
able and in otherwise removing hindrances from 
the path of later students. 

Confusion of Terms. In spite of the investi- 
gations of these scholars, however, there remains 
one serious difficulty that every student must en- 
counter in any consistent study of the medieval 
stage, the almost bewildering confusion in the use 
of terms, a confusion so great that it would seem 
as if writers of that time were accustomed to class 
as a " play " anything from a morris dance to a 



INTRODUCTORY 7 

morality. Thus when one reads in the records of 

the corporation of Plymouth that the craft of 

tailors " shall make or cause to be made at the cost 

and charge of the said crafte a pagent yerely unto 

Corpus Christi Ilde for the welthe and profitt of 

the said Ilde on Corpus Christi day ; and the same 

they shall kepe and maynteyn for euer at their 

coste and charge, for the which pagent the said 

bretherdyn may be prayed for euer in the said 

Ilde ", it is by no means clear from such a leet alone 

whether a play or a pageant-car in the Corpus 

Christi procession was required of the tailors; for 

the terms " pageant " and '' play " at that time were 

used interchangeably. Indeed we find the word 

" pageant " in the writings of this time meaning a 

playing place, a stage, a character, an episode, a 

scene, or even a mechanical device. Wiclif in his 

Ave Maria uses it in the sense of "character" 

when he says " he that kan best pleie a pagyn of 

the deuyl, syngynge songis of lecherie, of batailis 

and of lesyngis ... is holden most merie mon ". 

And Chambers^ quotes a passage from a writer 

of the early sixteenth century which shows the 

absolute confusion of the word: "Alexander 

played a payante more worthy to be wondred vpon 

for his rasshe aduenture than for his manhede. . . . 

There were v coursis in the feest and as many 

paiantis in the pley. I wyll haue made v stagg or 

bouthis in this playe {scenas). I wolde haue a 

'^Mediaeval Stage, ii. 137 n. 



8 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

place in the middyl of the pley (orchestra) that I 
myght se euery paiaunt. Of all the crafty and 
subtyle paiantis and pecis of warke made by 
mannys wyt, to go or moue by them selfe, the 
clocke is one of the beste ". Nor does the confu- 
sion stop with the word " pageant ". We find 
" ministrallis " meaning tumblers and musicians, 
histriones meaning jugglers, bear- wards, or musi- 
cians, as well as actors, and the same confusion in 
the terms Indus, ludentes, plays, players, etc. The 
result is that the student of this period cannot trust 
the nomenclature of the early scribes, nor of many 
later writers, such as Warton, Collier, or even 
Ward, but must slowly and laboriously collect his 
own data, make his own classifications, and 
formulate his own definitions as his conception of 
medieval life becomes clearer. 

"Corpus Christi Plays.'* It was for this 
reason, on account of the unscientific tendency of 
the medievalists to use terms inexactly and inac- 
curately, that the name. Corpus Christi, came to be 
so all-inclusive as it did. For example, at Lincoln 
the annual pageants were given on St. Anne's day, 
July 26, yet they are called Corpus Christi plays; 
and at Chester and Norwich they were produced at 
Whitsuntide as well as during Corpus Christi week, 
and yet were always known as Corpus Christi. 

This application of the term " Corpus Christi 
plays " to plays produced on other occasions seems 
to have been due to the fact that the pageants were 



INTRODUCTORY 9 

originally given during Corpus Christi week. Be- 
cause of the conflict between the holiday and the 
spiritual elements in the festival, however, the 
plays had to be transferred from Corpus Christi 
week to other dates, where, in spite of the change 
of time for representation, they still retained their 
original name. That this is the most probable ex- 
planation may be inferred from the contest which 
went on at York in 1426 when Friar William 
Melton '* recommended the Corpus Xpi play to the 
people, affirming that it was good in itself and 
highly praiseworthy; yet he said that the citizens 
and others, strangers visiting the city at the festival 
not for the play alone, joined in revellings, 
drunkenness, clamour, singing, and other impro- 
prieties, little regarding the divine offices of the 
day; and it was to be lamented that they conse- 
quently lost the benefit of the indulgences gra- 
ciously conceded by Pope Urban IV. to those who 
duly attended the religious services appointed by 
the canons : and therefore to the said Friar William 
it seemed profitable, and to this he persuaded the 
people of the city, that the play should be on one 
day and the procession on another, so that the 
people might attend divine service at the churches 
and receive the benefit of the promised indul- 
gences." 2 And as a result of the Friar's exhorta- 
tions the plays were presented on Wednesday, the 
vigil of the feast, while the procession was kept 
2 Davies, York Records, p. 243. 



10 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

for the festival itself. It was a similar move, too, 
apparently, which was made later at Chester some- 
time between 1471 and 1520, when the pageants 
were changed from Corpus Christi to Whitsun 
week and yet continued to be known by their old 
name. Hence it seems fair to say that there were 
no material differences among these religious pro- 
cessional plays at any of the midsummer festivals ; 
and for this reason references for methods of pre- 
sentation will be made in this volume alike to 
biblical cyclical plays at Whitsuntide, in Corpus 
Christi week, on St. Anne's day, or during any of 
the regular midsummer festival seasons. 

The Corpus Christi Procession. The most 
splendid of all the church celebrations in England 
was the Corpus Christi festival, which was insti- 
tuted by Pope Urban IV in 1264 in honor of the 
transubstantiated sacrament of the eucharist. Its 
origin, we are told, was in an alleged vision of a 
Flemish nun, Juliana, of the city of Liege. The 
first Thursday after Trinity Sunday was appointed 
for the day of the feast by Pope Urban, but his 
death the same year caused the bull to remain in- 
operative until the time of Pope Clement V, when 
the festival was finally established at the Council of 
Vienna as a time of universal celebration. St. 
Thomas Aquinas was appointed to draw up the 
holy ofifice, which consisted of hymns, antiphons, 
etc, taken from the symbolical parts of the Old 
Testament. The leading feature of the service was 



INTRODUCTORY 11 

ttie great procession in imitation of the solemn 
march of the ark under the ancient law. In this 
the priests and the people ceremoniously joined 
with torches, banners, and music, and in all their 
holiday regalia, to escort the host through the 
streets of the city and to beseech God " that he 
would please to make all the Congregation present 
taste efficaciously the Fruits of our Saviour's Re- 
surrection, of whose Passion this Sacrament is a 
Commemoration ".^ 

Growth of the Festival. Of the growth and 
spread of the Corpus Christi feast on the continent 
and in England we have very little authentic in- 
formation. It is not even known when the proces- 
sion was first introduced into England. Thomas 
Sprott in his Chronicles records that the festival 
was a confirmed institution by the year 1318; and 
it may be that during the interval between 131 1 and 
1318 it had been carried from Rome to other parts 
of the Christian world, although of this we have no 
authentic record. The earliest mention of the pro- 
cession in England which the present writer has 
been able to find is in 1325, in a copy of the Guild 
charter of Ipswich, still extant in the local Domes- 
day Book. Other dates, more uncertain, can be 
judged only approximately from the foundation of 
the Corpus Christi guilds in the various towns, 
1327 at London, 1348 at Coventry, 1408 at York, 
etc. And even then our conclusions are necessa- 

® Picai t, Ceremonies and Religious Customs, ii. 43. 



12 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

rily little more than inferences, especially in the 
case of the later Corpus Christi guilds, which seem 
to have been founded to preserve the splendor of 
the event after popular interest had turned from 
the procession to the plays. 

Plays at Corpus Christi. Likev^ise the same 
lack of information exists in regard to the union 
of the pageants and the procession. It is not 
known when the great cycles of religious plays 
came to center around Corpus Christi day in Eng- 
land, though they would seem to have got there 
within a short time after the procession reached 
England. The earliest report of Corpus Christi 
plays in any town in England ascribes them to 
Chester in 1327. This report, however, cannot be 
wholly relied upon. In the first place, it is based 
entirely upon tradition. And in the second, it is 
first found in a document dated 1544, headed " The 
proclamation for the Plaies, newly made by Wil- 
liam Newhall, clarke of the Pentice, the first yere of 
his entre ". In this proclamation Newhall states 
that there were certain " diverse stories of the bible, 
begynnyng with the creacon and fall of Lucifer, 
and [ending with the general] jugement of the 
World " which were devised into a play by a Sir 
" Henry Fraunces, somtyme monk of this dissolved 
monastery, who obtayned and gate of Clement, 
then beyng [bushop of Rome, a thousand] dales of 
pardon, and of the Busshop of Chester at that 
time, beyng xlti dales of pardon graunted from 



INTRODUCTORY 13 

thensforth to every person resortyng in pecible 
maner with good devocon to here and se the sayd 
[plaies] from tyme to tyme as oft as they shalbe 
plaied within this Citie [and that every person dis- 
turbing the same plaies in any manner wise to be 
accursed by thauctoritie of the said Pope Clement 
bulls unto such tyme as he or they be absolved ther- 
of {erased)], which plaies were devised to the hon- 
our of God by John Arneway, then maire of this 
Citie of Chester, and his brethren, and hoU comin- 
alty therof to be brought forthe, declared and plead 
at the costs and charges of the craftsmen and occu- 
pacons of the said Citie, whiche hitherunto have 
frome tyme to tyme used and performed the same 
accordingly." * This is the first mention of the 
tradition at Chester, though it is repeated from 
time to time during the fifteenth, sixteenth, and 
seventeenth centuries. And Chambers in his 
Mediaeval Stage ^ has shown a considerable degree 
of probability that it had a basis in fact. 

Earliest Records. But with the exception of 
this early fourteenth century tradition of plays at 
Chester, it is only after scores of years, in some 
cases hundreds, that one is able to find authentic 
record of actual Corpus Christi plays in English 
towns. The first authentic reference to plays is in 

* Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, pp. 317-18. In other documents of the same and 
later dates these plays are definitely called Corpus Christi 
plays. Cf. Chambers, ii. 349 ff» 

5 ii. pp. 348-52. 



14 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

1377 at Beverley, where in 1390 they were again 
spoken of as an " ancient custom ", when the order 
for the crafts to produce their pageants at Corpus 
Christi was entered in the Great Guild Book. 
York comes next with its first record of the plays 
in 1378, when the bakers were fined and a part of 
their payment given a la pagine des ditz Pestours 
de corpore cristi. Then come in the order of their 
earliest extant records: Coventry, 1392; New- 
castle-on-Tyne, 1426-7 ; Salisbury, 1461 ; Chester, 
1462; Worcester, 1467; Lincoln, 1471-2; Canter- 
bury, 1491 ; Ipswich, 1504; and so on. 

Popularity of the Plays. Thus something 
may be seen of the fragmentary nature of our 
records of the Corpus Christi stage and of the great 
difficulty in the way of any connected account of 
the plays. Yet, fortunately, in the midst of such 
meagre bits of information, the student has as his 
aid in gaining a clearer conception of these pageants 
the fact that the Corpus Christi plays were popular 
for so long and that these bits of existing informa- 
tion, fragmentary and disconnected though they be, 
are still numerous enough to furnish a compara- 
tively adequate view of the plays as a whole. Had 
the plays been less favored among the people of 
that day we should doubtlessly have been more in 
the dark than we are now; but that they were 
immensely popular among all classes is attested by 
the personnel of the audiences present and by the 
more than two hundred years of favored patronage 
which they received from the English people. 



INTRODUCTORY 15 

Yet, rather oddly, the records that have come 
down to us do not point with any degree of cer- 
tainty to more than about twenty-five towns in 
which plays of the Corpus Christi type were cer- 
tainly presented. And in all of these where the 
texts of the plays have come down to us it has been 
shown that the cycles were more or less intimately 
connected with each other. For instance, a high 
degree of probability has been shown that the Ches- 
ter Abraham and Isaac was derived from the same 
source as the play of that name in the Brome MS.^ 
It is certain that they are connected. Likewise it 
has been proved that the Chester plays were in- 
fluenced by the York cycle,^ which also furnished 
some four or five plays to the Towneley series. 
And the Coventry pageants have been shown to be 
closely connected with those of York, Chester, and 
Towneley. And in the same way it may be sup- 
posed that similar influences and connections could 
be established among the remaining craft cycles if 
the plays of Beverley, of Ipswich, of Lincoln, Perth, 
Pontefract, Preston, Worcester, and the other 
towns were extant. Thus it seems that the Corpus 
Christi plays did not have so much a widespread 
vogue as an immense popularity and patronage in 

• Pollard, English Miracle Plays, Moralities and Inter- 
ludes, pp. 184-5; Hohlfeld in Modern Language Notes, v. 
222-38. Professor Manly holds that the Brome play was 
derived from the Chester pageant. 

7 Hohlfeld in Anglia, xi. 260 ff. ; Davidson, Studies in the 
English Mystery Plays, 130 ff. 



16 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

the comparatively small number of towns where 
they were presented. 

Religious Purposes. The popularity and the 
persistence of the Corpus Christi plays in England 
was due largely to the fact that they were a direct 
exponent of the thought, feeling, and reHgious atti- 
tude of the times ; and their purpose, though often 
perhaps not unmingled with definite economic ex- 
pectations, was always a serious religious one. The 
cutlers and braziers of Beverley, for instance, un- 
dertook their pageant in 1475 " i^ honour of God 
the Father Almighty, and the most glorious Virgin 
Mary, and to the honour of the glorious confessor 
St. John of Beverley, and All Saints ". Even the 
fraternities of laboring men claimed to base their 
unions " in the honor of the blyssed Trinitie and of 
the Feaste of Corporis Christi and of the blyssed 
and holy confessor Saynt John of Beverley and of 
all saynts in heven ". And because the day was so 
sacred and the plays so much to the advancement 
of Christian living, therefore in 141 1 the Keepers 
of the same town enacted " that every yerr for- 
ever . . . the pageant of the play of Corpus Christi 
which they were accustomed to play " should be 
given. Beverley, too, was not at all by itself; its 
neighbor towns throughout England were equally 
serious. 

Commercial Profit. Such was the early atti- 
tude of the towns and their citizens toward the 
plays. But little by little as the years went by the 



INTRODUCTORY 17 

production of the pageants came to be urged more 
and more for the sake of personal amusement and 
the individual commercial profit of the fortunate 
cities that possessed plays. Hence we are not sur- 
prised to find the mercers' guild at Shrewsbury 
imposing a fine of I2d. on any of their brethren 
who might " happen to ride or goe to Coventre 
Faire or elleswhere out of the town of Shrewes- 
burye to by or sell".^ Other towns were recogniz- 
ing the advantages of the pageants from a busi- 
ness standpoint. Sir William Dugdale, too, writes 
in his History of Warwickshire that he was * told 
by some old people, who in their younger years 
were eye-witnesses of these Pageants so acted, 
that the yearly confluence of people to see that 
shew was extraordinary great, and yielded no 
small advantage to this City [Coventry]'.^ Hence 
by the latter half of the fifteenth century we are 
not surprised to find the plays at Worcester given 
" to the worshippe of god and profite and encrese 
of the seid cite, and also alle the Craftis that ben 
contributory to the same ", where the " profite and 
encrese of the seid cite, and also alle the Craftis " 
is emphasized much more emphatically than " the 
worshippe of god ". This was the later attitude, 
and in it may be found in great measure the cause 
of the ultimate decay of the plays. The religious 
interest of the people had changed and the whole 

^Transactions of the Shropshire Arch. Soc, viii. 273; 
Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 395. 
* Quoted in Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 5. 



18 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

matter of expense for the pageants was on " the 
poor commoners ", who, as the mayor of Coventry 
wrote to Thomas Cromwell in 1539, " were at 
such expense with their plays and pageants that 
they fared the worse all the year after ".^* But 
more of this part of the subject later. 

10 Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 358. 



II 

PREPARATION FOR THE PAGEANTS 

Introductory. For about two hundred years 
after 1325 the Corpus Christi festival was perhaps 
the greatest public feast day in England. To those 
towns which were fortunate enough to have plays 
people flocked from all the neighboring villages, 
even from far distant cities. And the day was 
passed with more or less pleasure, religion, and 
rioting in all the exuberant splendor of a medieval 
holiday. 

Pageant Control by Religious Guilds. But 
for those who had the entertainment of so many 
visitors the day was not filled with such unalloyed 
enjoyment; for the whole procession and all the 
pageants had to be arranged and planned months 
in advance. In arranging for the festival the gen- 
eral rule was for the religious guilds to take charge 
of the church procession alone and the trades crafts 
to look after the plays. But such was not always 
the case by any means. On the contrary, we find 
" a play sett forth by the clergye " advertised in the 

19 



20 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

banes to the Chester plays, and we hear of scenes 
being added to the regular cycles by the clergy and 
other minor officials of the parish churches of 
Beverley, Bungay, and Salisbury; while at Ip- 
swich and Lincoln, and Norwich in its early days, 
the whole affair of both the procession and the 
pageants was entrusted to the oversight of the relig- 
ious guilds. At Ipswich, however, the Guild of 
Corpus Christi, which produced the pageants there, 
was really a reorganization of the old Guild Mer- 
chant, which included all the burgesses of the town 
and thus was practically identical with the town 
corporation. The same might also be said of the 
St. Anne's Guild at Lincoln under the supervision 
of which the plays were produced ; for there, too, as 
at Ipswich, it was "agreed [in 15 19] that every 
man and woman in the city, being able, shall be 
brother and sister in St. Anne's gild, and pay yearly 
4d., man and wife, at the least ",^ thus making the 
guild almost the same as the town corporation. 

Control of the Procession by Religious Guilds. 
The usual thing, however, was for some leading 
religious guild to take charge of the procession and 
to exercise only supervisory control over the sub- 
ject matter of the plays. At Beverley and other 
places it was the Corpus Christi Guild ; at Coventry 
it was the Trinity Guild; at Norwich, St. Luke's; 
and at Canterbury, St. Dunstan's. At Beverley, 
Coventry, York, and probably in the other towns, 

1 Hist. MSS Comm., xiv. App. 8, p. 27. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 21 

the Corpus Christi guilds were dedicated especially 
" to the praise and honour of the most sacred body 
of our Lord Jesus Christ ", in other words, to the 
proper observance of Corpus Christi day, and the 
members " were bound to keep a solempne proces- 
sion, the sacrament being in a shryne borne in the 
same through the city yerely the Fryday after 
Corpus Christi day, and the day after to have a 
solempne mass and dirige ".^ In these cities, as 
elsewhere, the office of the guilds was to arrange 
for the procession, get men to march in it, prepare 
the surplices and the decorations, and make all nec- 
essary arrangements for the proper celebration of 
the feast. Such guilds came in time to be power- 
ful factors in the civic government of their towns. 
We hear of their owning and renting lands, of their 
lending money to the lords of the realm, and of 
their guild-masters even marching " with the Mair 
for the tyme Being yn all maner of Goynges ". 

Trades Guilds. When the procession was 
supervised by the religious guilds — and this was 
by far the more common, in fact, the almost uni- 
versal rule, — the presentation of the plays was en- 
trusted, under certain conditions, to the trades 
guilds, whose chief marks of separate and in- 
dividual existence as guilds seem, sometimes at 
least, to have been only the individual candle in the 
church, a stated position in the procession, and a 
separate pageant in the play-cycle. The following 

2DavIes, York Records, p. 245. Cf, Smith, English 
Gilds, pp. 154 and 232. 



22 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

is a concrete example from the corporation MSS 
of Beverley: 

Of the orders and statutes of the craft of Drapers 
newly founded by the consent and request of the said 
Drapers, and grant and license of Adam Newcombe [etc.] 
the twelve keepers or governors of the town of Bever- 
ley, with the consent and assent of all the aldermen of 
the same town, present in the Gild Hall on S. Mark the 
Evangelist's day (25th April), A. D. 1493, the under- 
written statutes and orders were ordered to be registered 
and for ever observed, in form following. 

First, that there shall be of the same Drapers a brother- 
hood for the maintenance of a wooden castle to be erected 
on Mondays in Rogation week yearly for ever next the 
castle of the Mercers, when the venerable procession with 
the shrine of the most holy confessor of Christ, John, 
shall be borne to the chapel of the Blessed Mary the 
Virgin. . . . And that every master of the aforesaid 
craft shall sit in his best clothes and apparel in the same 
castle on the coming of the procession aforesaid. . . . 
And in the afternoon every brother in the same clothing 
and apparel shall on the said Monday ride with his 
brethren, as the custom is, next to the Mercers, under the 
penalty aforesaid. 

Also the said Drapers shall maintain and find among 
them a candle of wax before the image of S. Michael the 
Archangel in the church or chapel of the Blessed Mary 
the Virgin burning on Sundays and other feast-days 
throughout the year. 

Moreover that the said Drapers shall play or cause to 
be played on the feast of Corpus Christi a play called 
'Dooming Pilate', every year when the community of 
Beverley consent on S. Mark's day that the plays should 
be played, under the penalty therefor specified in the com- 
mon register, viz. 40S.3 

3 Leach, Beverley Town Documents, p. 99. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 23 

At other places than Beverley the question of the 
plays was not made so prominent, but in the towns 
where plays were presented they always had their 
weight. And as the separate light, pageant, etc, 
was the distinguishing mark of independent guild- 
ship, so the condition of membership in a craft, 
even of citizenship in the town, came to be a will- 
ingness to wear the required livery and to con- 
tribute toward the pageant and other expenses. It 
is on this basis at Beverley in 1493 that we find it 
"ordande and statute that no Gentilman, yeoman 
ne craftsman of the towne of Beverley be takyn to 
worshyp of the towne: bott allonely that berys 
charge of clothyng, castell and pageaunte within 
the sayde towne ".* 

Contributory Pageants. But, on account of 
the heavy expense of the peageant, not all the 
guilds were able to produce a separate scene. In 
such cases a weaker craft became affiliated with, 
or contributory, or assistant, to a stronger one and 
paid annually toward the production of the other 
craft's plays. Sometimes the poorer company paid 
a definite, stipulated, annual amount toward the 
other's pageant, as at Coventry, where the butchers 
paid annually " xvj^. \\\]d." toward the whittawer's 
pageant, and the cappers and fullers " xiijj. iiij J." 
toward the girdlers' " priste & pageant ".^ At 
other times each member of the contributory craft 

^Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 49. 
5 Coventry Leet Book, pp. 559, 565. 



24 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

paid a fixed amount, as for instance at York in 
1 5 17, when " it was agreed that for a peace to be 
hade betwixt the Skynners and the vestment mak- 
ers that from hensforth the vestment-makers shall 
pay yerly to the bryngyng furth of the Skynners 
pageant, euery maister viijc/. & euery jenaman 
injd., & no more, to be paide wt oute denye, yerly, 
to the chamberlayne handes affore the fest of Wit- 
sonday, and then the skynners to resceyue it atte 
chamberlayne handes, and they not to be charged 
wt the repparacons of there pageant ".^ At other 
times still, as with the Coventry tilers and pinners, 
who were contributory to the wrights, there was 
no stated amount of assessment, but all the mem- 
bers were " to pay & here jerely after theire por- 
cion as other wrightes doo towardes pe charge of 
their pageant "J 

Responsibility for the Pageants. In such 
cases as these the responsibility for the pageant 
seems to have been sometimes removed from the 
associate guild or guilds and to have devolved en- 
tirely on the independent craft, which alone stood 
charged with the play. — 

1547. — It is also enacted that the Cowpers of this Citie 
shall frome hensfurth be associat wt the Tilers & pynners 
and bere suche charges as thei have doon in tymes past 
And that the Cowpers shalbe the hedd & cheffest of theim 
& stand charged wt the pagyaunt.^ 

^ Smith, York Plays, Introd., p. xl. 

'^ Coventry Leet Book, p. 564. 

^ Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. il. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 25 

At other times, however, there seems to have 
been no direct responsibiHty on any one craft, but, 
rather, they all aUke, under the leadership of their 
masters, undertook the charge. — 

It alsoe appearinge to us that they [the painters and 
glaziers] have beene tyme out of minde one brotherhood 
for the costs and expenses of the plaie of the Shepperds 
Wach with the Angells hyrne.® 

12 Henry VIII. [1520] 'the Stuards of the Founders 
and Pewters agree with the Stewards of the Smiths to 
here and draw the Whitson Playe and Corpus Christi', 
&C.10 

Attitude toward the Plays. Such equality of 
responsibility, however, was the exception rather 
than t);e rule, and we find the minor crafts con- 
tinually chafing under the compulsory assessments 
for the plays of other companies. In fact, in the 
early days of the pageants it seems to have been 
the aim of every guild, if possible, to have its own 
livery, produce its own play, and put itself on an 
equality with the other crafts. — 

Also it is desyryd by the Drapers that thai shall be in 
clothyng by thame selfe; And to have a castell and a 
pageante as other occupacyons hafe. Such a pageante as 
the xii Governers wyll assigne thame to, upon payne of 
forfettour to the comynalte of xh.'^^ 

9 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 316. 

10 Ibid., p. 317- 

11 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 49. 



26 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

From this it must not be inferred that the pro- 
duction of a play was always a pleasure and that 
the companies were continually vying with each 
other in their zeal to obtain possession of a pageant. 
This may have been the early attitude, but in time, 
from being an honor, the presentation of a play 
became a duty, later even a burden. Hence, in later 
years we find numerous petitions, like that of the 
Chester cappers in 1523, praying the city council 
" to exonerate and discharge theym of and for the 
bringinge forthe " ^^ of their plays. 

City Council. As in this case at Chester, so 
in other cities the council was a necessary adjunct 
in settling matters relating to the production of the 
pageants. This is what might be expected too; 
for from first to last the plays were necessarily a 
burden on the crafts, and, especially among the 
associate guilds who had no further participation 
in the pageants than the payment of their annual 
dues, one might expect to find certain companies 
attempting to escape their full duties, thus making 
some sort of board of arbitration an absolute neces- 
sity. In the natural course of change, too, the 
wealth and power of the different guilds was con- 
tinually varying, making it impossible for a once 
wealthy but now impoverished company to con- 
tinue producing a play, while perhaps at the same 
time a stronger brotherhood was escaping the onus 

12 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, pp. 316-17 n. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 27 

of a pageant altogether. And in the matter of con- 
tributions, with the constant encroachments in 
trade of one guild upon another, it often became a 
question of serious doubt to what guild the asso- 
ciate crafts ought to be contributory. In such 
cases the question was taken to the " fuUwurship- 
fuU Meir " and his council, who not only decided 
such matters as these, but aided in the collection of 
the " pagent pencys " and exercised a general 
oversight over the presentation of the plays. 

Assessments. The pageant expenses, how- 
ever, were almost altogether on the guilds, who be- 
came responsible for the pageant-wagon, repairing, 
cleaning, decorating, and strewing it with rushes, 
for the payment of the actors, their costumes and 
refreshments, for the play-book and the prompter 
— in fact, for practically everything. These ex- 
penses were met by different methods: by fines 
from the members, by contributions from associate 
guilds, by special levies known as " pagent pencys ", 
and in various other ways. But the individual as- 
sessments were never excessively high. At 
Coventry a journeyman weaver paid only four 
pence; at Newcastle-on-Tyne a tailor's hireling 
paid threepence; and at Beverley a journeyman 
smith paid twopence. A master tailor at New- 
castle-on-Tyne paid seven pence; a master capper 
at Beverley eight pence when there was a play and 
sixpence when there was none; a master smith at 
the same place four pence when there was a play ; 



28 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

and a master cardmaker, saddler, mason, or painter 
at Coventry, twelve pence. None of these assess- 
ments, it will be seen, can be considered very large 
when one remembers that the wages of the average 
journeyman of the time ranged from three to five 
pence a day and those of the master craftsmen 
from four to nine. And in the way of total annual 
assessments the amount was not usually large. 
The total contribution of the Coventry butchers to 
the whittawers' pageant in 1495 was only i6.y. Sd., 
while the cappers and fullers in the same year paid 
1 3 J. 4d. to the girdlers, and the skinners and bar- 
bers only 6s. 8d. to the cardmakers.^^ 

Pageant Expenses. The cause of such rela- 
tively small assessments on the members and their 
journeymen was the lessening of actual pageant ex- 
penses through money from fines and other similar 
sources. At Beverley, for instance, a leet was 
passed in 1475-6 that every "cardcobler, cuttiler 
vocatus an hawker, plomars, furbiorers, and 
pewtrers qui vendunt aliqua bona infra villam per 
hawkyng " should contribute 6d. to the pageant of 
the cutlers and braziers.^* The bakers also light- 
ened their expenses by enacting in 1547 that " every 
foreigner that brings bread to Beverley to sell, shall 
pay yearly to the Alderman of Bakers toward the 
charges of vesture and * pageand ' of the Occupa- 
tion 4d ".^^ And in some cities the companies 

13 Harris, Coventry Leet Book, pp. 559, 564-5. 
^^Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 102. 
16 Ibid., p. 88. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 29 

got help from their brother guilds in neighboring 
towns, as at Coventry, where the tilers in 1501 re- 
ceived a contribution of 5^. from the Stoke tilers. 

Collection of Fines. The method of collect- 
ing these duties and assessments was by the ap- 
pointment of a special warden or pageant-master, 
as at York, who collected all pageant dues. And 
if he failed, then the matter became one for the 
ruling of the town council. This council, too, 
• seems to have been severe in its methods of collec- 
tions; for at Chester in 1575 we find an entry that 
" Whereas Andrew Tailer of the saide citie tailer 
usinge the occupation of Diers within the same 
citie was taxed & sessed to beare with the com- 
pany of Dyers by the same company for the 
charges in the setting furth of their parte & pagent 
of the plaies set furth & plaied in this citie at Mid- 
somer last past comonly called Whytson plaies & 
by the saide company rated & appointed to paie for 
that entent iiis. viiid. which he refused to paie and 
whereas upon the complainte of the saide compeny 
of Diers against the saide Andrew to the right 
worshipfull Sir John Savage knight late maior of 
the same citie in the tyme of his mairalty wher- 
upon the same Andrew beinge called before the 
same then maior in that behalf denied to paie the 
same & therefore the said Andrew Tailler was then 
and ther by the said then maior comytted to warde 
where he hetherunto hath remayned ".^^ 

16 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, pp. 304-5 «• 



30 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

And in the same way that the town council held 
the members responsible for their assessments, so 
it held the pageant-master for his play, or the craft 
through the pageant-master. In 1392, for instance, 
a penalty of 40s. was assessed the Beverley smiths 
for their failure to present their play of the Ascen- 
sion on Corpus Christi day; but "because they 
acted obediently, therefore the 40s. were re-deliv- 
ered ".^^ At Coventry in 1460 the fine was higher, 
it being " ordeyned pat euery Craft pat hath pagant 
to pley In, that pe pagant be made redy & brought 
furth to pley, vppon pe peyn of Cs. to be reased of 
iiij maistirs of the Craftes pat so offend ".^^ 

Expenses on the Corporation. The notable 
thing about these regulations for the plays is 
that, although the production of the pageants was 
required by the city councilmen, yet the expenses 
as a rule were almost altogether on the crafts. 
Exceptions, it is true, are to be found here and 
there, but many of them on close examination will 
be found to be seeming rather than real. For in- 
stance, one would judge on first thought that the 
Beverley corporation must have been at considerable 
expense in purchasing pageants and stage properties 
for their Corpus Christi plays; for we hear of a 
certain John of Erghes, " hayrer ", coming before 
the Twelve Keepers of the town of Beverley in 
1 39 1 and undertaking " for himself and his fellows 

^'^ Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 66. 
1® Coventry Leet Book, ii. 312. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 31 

of the same craft to play a certain play called Para- 
dise sufficiently, viz., every year on the Feast of 
Corpus Christi when other craftsmen of the same 
town play, during the life of the said John of 
Erghes, at his own cost, willing and granting that 
he will pay to the community of the town for every 
default in the play aforesaid lo^., Nicholas Fau- 
coner being his surety. And he also undertook to 
re-deliver to the twelve Keepers of the town for 
the time being, at the end of his life, all necessaries 
which he has belonging to the said play under 
penality of 20s., viz., one car (' karre '), eight hasps 
(' hespis '), eighteen staples (' stapils '), two visors 
(Risers'), two angels' wings (' winges angeli '), 
one pine pole ('fir sparr'), one serpent 
('worme'), two pairs of linen boots, two pairs of 
shirts, one sword ".^^ One might surmise from 
this unique entry that the Beverley corporation had 
at some time experienced real sorrow for the crafts- 
men and had allowed itself during its moment of 
grief to purchase the necessary properties for the 
plays ; but later laws of the same town make it seem 
far more probable that the pageant and costumes 
lent to John of Erghes were once the property of 
some poor craft that had been compelled on ac- 
count of poverty to surrender its play and to buy 
release with its pageant-car and costumes. And in 
the same way many other expenses apparently 
borne by the corporation in the production of the 

^^Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 66. 



32 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

plays may be shown to be seeming rather than real. 
Expense of Entertainment. In general, there- 
fore, it may be said that the crafts produced the 
plays at the will of the councilmen, but at their 
own expense, and that the mayor and his men en- 
tertained at the expense of the city treasury any 
notable visitors who might come to the festival. 
For example, at York in 1478 we have a record of 
the mayor and aldermen at Corpus Christi. The 
details are enumerated as follows : 

Expenses at the Feast of Corpus Christi. 

And in expenses incurred this year by the mayor, alder- 
men, and many others of the council of the chamber at 
the Feast of Corpus Christi, seeing and directing the play 
in the house of Nicholas Bewyk, according to custom, to- 
gether with 40s. 4d. paid for red and white wine, given 
and sent to knights, ladies, gentlemen, and nobles then 
being within the city; and also 9s. paid for the rent of the 
chamber, and 3s. 4d. paid to one preaching and delivering 
a sermon on the morrow of the said feast, in the cathedral 
church of St. Peter of York, after the celebration of the 
procession, according to the like custom, £4 iSs. iirf.20 

At Coventry in 1457, too, we note that, " On 
Corporis Christi yeven at nyght then next suying 
came the quene from kelyngworth to Coventre; at 
which tyme she wold not be met, but came preuely 
to se the play there on the morowe ; ... At which 
tyme the Meyre and his brethern send vnto her a 
present which was sich as here suyth: That is to 
wit, ccc paynemaynes, a pipe of Rede wyne, a 

20 Davies, York Records, pp. 75 and 77. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 33 

dosyn Capons of haut grece, a dosyii of grete fat 
Pykes, a grete panyer full of Pescodes and another 
panyer full of pipyns and Orynges and ij Cofyns 
of Counf etys and a pot of grene Gynger ".^^ And 
at Chester in 1575 *' it was ordered, concluded, & 
agried upon by the maior, aldermen, sheriffs and 
common counsell of the saide city that the plays 
commonly called the Whitson plays at Mydsomer 
nexte cominge shall be sett furth & plaied in such 
orderly manner & sorte as the same have been ac- 
customed, with suche correction and amendemente 
as shall be thaught conveniente by the saide maior, 
& all charges of the saide plays to be supported & 
borne by thinhabitaunts of the saide citie as have 
been heretofore used ".^^ So, on the whole, it 
may be safely said that the city authorities, as such, 
were at comparatively small expense with the plays, 
their chief office being to exercise a general super- 
visory control over the pageants as performed by 
the guilds. 

In the way of supervision one of the first things 
the council had to decide by way of preparation for 
the festival was whether the plays were to be pro- 
duced at all and what scenes, if any assignments 
different from last year were to be made, were to 
be given to the different crafts. In most of the 
towns during the fourteenth and fifteenth cen- 
turies the pageants were an annual event, but in 

21 Coventry Leet Book, ii. 300. 

22 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 321. 



34 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

some places, as at Beverley and Worcester, their 
presentation was a subject for annual decision. 
At Beverley the plays were regularly voted upon 
on St. Mark's day ; at Worcester the council had 
a leet " that yerly, at the lawday holdyn at hok- 
day, that the grete enquest shalle provide and 
ordeyn wheper the pageant shuld go that yere or 
no. And so yerly for more surete ".^^ 

Assignment of the Plays. When or how often 
the individual scenes were assigned to the crafts 
is not known; nor do we know certainly what the 
basis of such assignments was. Some attempt 
seems to have been made to adapt the character of 
the scene to be performed to the vocation of the 
company by which it was acted, — what Chambers 
has aptly termed " dramatic appropriateness ". It 
cannot be taken as a matter of mere accident, for 
instance, that the bakers at Beverley, Chester, and 
York were assigned the play of the Last Supper, 
that the cooks at Beverley and Chester should have 
the Harrozving of Hell, that the watermen at 
Beverley and Chester, the shipwrights at York and 
Newcastle-on-Tyne, and the fishers and mariners at 
York should produce the plays dealing with Noah, 
nor that the goldsmiths at Beverley, York, and 
Newcastle-on-Tyne should furnish the play of the 
Magi. This adaptation of pageant scene to the 
trade of the guild, although frequent, could not of 
course be carried out in every case. The reasons 

23 Smith. English Gilds, p. 385. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 35 

for such assignments do not seem to have been al- 
together sentimental, but because the practice of a 
trade by a craft frequently enabled the members to 
act more effectively in certain plays. For example, 
the shipwrights would know how to handle the ark 
better, more quickly, and more easily than any other 
guild; the bakers could furnish the food for the 
Last Supper; and the goldsmiths, the jewels and the 
ornaments for the Magi. 

Patron Saint. At other times, however, the 
reason for the assignment seems to have been very 
different and, at the same time, more reasonable. 
This was when the companies were assigned plays 
in which their patron saints held a prominent part. 
At Beverley, for example, the barbers, whose 
candle burnt in St. Mary's Church before the image 
of St. John the Baptist, agreed " that they play or 
cause to be played a pageant of the aforesaid S. 
John baptising Christ in the Jordan " ; ^* and the 
tanners, whose '' Searge " burnt before the image 
of Christ on the cross in the high altar of St. 
Mary's chapel, played the Takinge of the Crose. 
At Coventry also the mercers, whose fraternity was 
" in honour of the Assumption " produced the As- 
sumption and Appearance of Mary to Thomas,^^ 
and at Lincoln and Beverley the *' Prestes " chose 
for their scene " to be played and shown in the pro- 

2* Leach, Beverley Town Documents, p. 109. 

25 Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, Introd., 
pp. xvi-xvii. 



36 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

cession to be made by the citizens " the Coronacion 
of Our Lady. 

Variations in the Assignments. Such seem to 
have been the principles which governed the assign- 
ment of plays, which, of course, met with many 
variations from time to time. The assignment of 
more than one pageant to a craft was such a varia- 
tion, but one which was made occasionally and 
which seems to have been made on the basis of 
wealth. At Beverley in 141 1 the bowers and 
fletchers presented both the " Fleyng into Egip " 
and the " Habraham and Isaak " ; ^^ the merchants 
at the same place produced both Blak Herod and 
Domesday in 1520; and in 1454 the guild of the 
bricklayers and plasterers at Newcastle-on-Tyne 
furnished the Creation of Adam and the Flight into 
Egypt plays.^^ Other examples of variation in 
the regular principle of assignments are to be found 
in the play by *' the colliges and prestys " at Bever- 
ley on "Corpus Xri day", 1544, and the pageant 
of the Assumption furnished by the " worshipfuU 
wyves " of Chester in 1477. Likewise, plays by 
friars, minor clerks, and religious guilds are not 
infrequently mentioned; but the unique honor of 
having a play promoted by " reverend persons of 
the worthier sort " was reserved for Beverley. In 
this case it seems that certain well-to-do men of 
the city had been accustomed to escape the burdens 

26 Hist MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 99- 

27 Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, pp. xxxix-xl. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 37 

of a pageant at Corpus Christi tide; whereupon 
" moderate dealing was held with William Rolles- 
ton, merchant, Nicholas of Ryse, Adam Tirwitt, 
John of Holme, William Wilton, Adam Barker, 
and other reverend persons of the worthier sort not 
having liveries yearly like others of the rest of the 
crafts, and not taking part in plays otherwise, that 
the said worthies, though they had not before done 
so, should on Corpus Christi day erect a pageant, 
and support it at their own cost, and cause a play to 
be played honourably and fittingly ". The result 
was that the " twelve Keepers " got together and 
** rendered their judgment in this form: That the 
aforesaid worthies toward the Feast of Corpus 
Christi next following the present year should, by 
means of four of them and under the supervision 
of the twelve Keepers of the community for the 
time being, at their own cost and charges cause to 
be made an honest and honourable pageant, and an 
honest play to be played in the same, under penalty 
of 40^. to be levied from the same worthies to the 
use of the community aforesaid ".^^ 

"The Originalle Booke." Besides looking 
after any possible changes in the regular assign- 
ment of plays, an additional duty of the council 
was the choice of the text of the originalle booke, 
the regenall, rygynall, oragynall, registrum, or 
Corpus Christi play-book by whatever name it 
might be called ; for, besides allotting the scenes to 

28 Hw/. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 67. 



38 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

each guild, the aldermen must know what was to 
be spoken therein. At Beverley this decision was 
made on St. Mark's day (April 25 )2® and at 
Coventry probably sometime in the early part of 
March ; for on the second of the month we find the 
reviser of the two extant Coventry plays writing: 
" Tys matter nevly translate be Robert Croo in the 
yere of oure Lorde God MV^xxxiiij^® then beyng 
meyre Mastur Palmar beddar and Rychard Smythe 
an [Herre] Pyxley masturs of the Weywars thys 
boke yendide the seycond day of Marche in yere 
above seyde ".^^ A new selection of course was 
not made every year, since the same list of plays 
and the same material would often serve for several 
years, possibly for scores of years. Yet changes 
in, and hence new selections for, the " originalle 
booke " were often a necessity, since this was the 
register of all the plays for each town. This book 
remained always in the possession of the town 
council for safe keeping, and to it the crafts came 
to copy their individual scenes. We do not know 
what the cost was of making this play-book as a 
whole, but it would seem to have been high accord- 
ing to the value of money in those days. The 
Coventry drapers in 1572 paid ten shillings for 
" wryttyng " their scene, a price which would have 
made the play-book containing all the scenes 
amount to £5. And a corresponding price paid 

29 Leach, Beverley Town Documents, p. 99. 

30 Sharp, Weaver's Pageant of the Presentation in the 
Temple, p. 85. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 39 

for the forty-eight scenes of the York cycle would 
have run the whole register up to £24. 

The Waits. The pageants having been deter- 
mined upon, the plays assigned to the various com- 
panies, and the play-books copied, the next thing in 
order for the council was the advertisement of the 
festival. This advertising was done by means of 
the city waits, who rode throughout the town and 
published the news of the forthcoming plays. At 
Beverley in 1423, for example, we find an item of 
20c?. paid to " the waits of the town, on the mor- 
row of Ascension Day, riding with the said proc- 
lamation [the banes] of Corpus Christi through 
the whole town ".^^ And at Chester we learn that 
" yarlye before these [plays] were played, there 
was a man fitted for ye purpose which did ride, as 
I take it vpon St George daye throughe ye Cittie 
[of Chester], and there published the tyme and the 
matter of ye playes in breife, which was called ' ye 
readinge of the banes ' ".^^ In this case, how- 
ever, the city crier served as a wait. Chambers 
states ^^ that the stewards of each craft rode with 
the Chester city crier, and it would seem probable 
that the actors themselves sometimes went along; 
for in 1 561 we find 2s. paid for " ryding the banes, 
our horses and ourselves, of which Symyon was 
one ".^* In other towns than Chester from two to 

3i//uf. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 160. 

32 Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, p. xix. 

33 Mediaeval Stage, ii. 354. 

3* Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 306 n. 



40 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

four regular waits served. At York in 1461 there 
were three; three at Lincoln in 1514; two at Bever- 
ley in 1423, three in 1438 ; and four at Coventry in 
1423. In 1439 ^t Coventry they even organized 
themselves into a band and " ordeyned that they 
Trumpet schall haue the rule off the whaytes, and 
off hem be Cheffe ".^^ In consequence of this or- 
ganization we hear of their wearing regular liv- 
eries. Numerous entries of expenses " for the 
Waits' Hveries and badges " are to be found at 
Beverley, Coventry, Lincoln, York, and other 
cities. At Coventry in 1442 the waits were " to 
have their livery on condition that they have a 
trumpet, and the escutcheons (badges) on security 
being found ; that is to say, they shall have a dozen 
of cloth worth 20^. due to them for their livery 
from the wardens, against Corpus Christi ".^^ At 
Lincoln in 1553 the waits were '' to have their liv- 
eries of red cloth as they had last year ", ^^ and at 
York in 1461-2 there is an expense of 26s. " paid to 
William Chymnay, for twelve ells of Muster- 
develers [coarse velvet], bought for three minstrels 
of the City ".^^ Their badge of office was usually 
a shield, which hung from a silver collar about the 
minstrel's neck. It was so costly that at Coventry 
it was delivered to the wait only upon security, and 

S5 Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 189. 
^^ Ibid., p. 200. 

^"^ Hist. MSS Comm., xiv. App. 8, p. 47. 
38 Davies, York Records, p. 13. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 41 

at Beverley was kept by the city and delivered to 
the minstrel " on occasions when needed ". — 

4 April, for two silver shields ('scutis') in honour of 
the community, to be yearly delivered to the waits at the 
pleasure of the Keepers for the time being, under suffi- 
cient sureties, the price of the shield 31^.** 

At Lincoln, instead of being shields, these badges 
took the form of crosses and, as at most places, 
were charged with the city arms. 

Duties and Decorations of the Minstrels. The 
number of the waits, as we have seen above, was 
usually three, and their instruments were generally 
a fife and a trumpet, to which a drum was often 
added. Sharp gives a note of expense from the 
Coventry treasurer's accounts which will serve to 
give some idea of the decorations carried by the 
waits on their instruments : — 

1587. — D'd to Goldstonc for the Trumpet the 15 of June 
doble taffata sarcenet Crimson & grcene viijs Red & 
grene strings w'th buttons red frenge & silke ijs jd.*o 

This was in 1587, seven years after the regular 
Corpus Christi plays were laid down, but it may 
be taken as probably differing very slightly from an 
earlier custom of appending banners resplendent 
with the city arms to the trumpets of the waits as 
they rode through their own and their neighbor 
cities proclaiming the pageants for the next Corpus 

39 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 161. 
*" Coventry Mysteries, p. 209. 



42 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Christi festival and attracting attention by means 
of their fife, trumpet, and drum. 

The Banes. 

Lordings Royall and Reverentt 
Lovelie ladies that here be lentt 
Sovereigne Citizens hether am I sent 
A message for to say. 

I pray you all that be present 
That you will here with good intent 
And all your eares to be lent 
Hertfull I you pray. 

Our worshipfull mair of this Citie 
With all his royall cominaltie 
Solem pagens ordent hath he 

At the fest of Whitsonday tyde.*i 

Thus the crier of the Chester banes began his 
proclamation on St. George's day before the 
festival. This preliminary announcement of the 
forthcoming pageants, known as the banes, or 
banns, v^as cried in the market-place, in all 
the principal streets of the city, and probably in 
the neighboring towns. As seen from the extract 
above, the banes were a versified announcement of 
what the plays were to be, especially prepared and 
written out by the waits before starting on their 
ride. At Beverley in 1423 we have a note of 6s. 
Sd. paid to " Master Thomas Bynham, Friar 

*i Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 307. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 43 

Preacher, for making and composing the banns 
(' les banes ') before the Corpus Christi play pro- 
claimed through the whole town, 4 May ".^^ ^^d 
other notices of payments for the banes and to the 
waits for riding are to be found from time to time. 
Payment of the Waits. Such were the pre- 
liminary duties of the waits with reference to the 
Corpus Christi plays, for which they seem to have 
been well paid— so well, in fact, that the position 
became a most desirable one. At Beverley they 
were elected annually by the town council and were 
paid twenty shillings a year for their duties,^^ but 
were given a fee of ten pence each extra " on the 
morrow of Ascension Day, [for] riding with the 
said proclamation of Corpus Christi through the 
whole town".^* At Chester also, when the city 
crier delivered the proclamation of the plays, we 
find extra payments made. — 

1554. For ryding the banes xiiid. the City Cryer ridd. 

1561. Cost of ryding the banes, our horses and our- 
selves, of which Symyon was one, iis. 

1567. For the banes id.; Gloves and drink iiiid.; Bred 
for our horses that day we rod the banes 
xiid.45 

And at Coventry and York the waits were regarded 
as so important that, in addition to their salary 

*^Hist MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 160. 
*•'' Ibid., p. 105. 
** Ibid., p. 160. 

*•'* Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Rexgns, p. 306 n. 



44 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

from the city, they were voted an annual tax from 
the different classes of citizens according to wealth 
and rank. And in order that the waits might be 
sure of collecting their legal allowance from the 
townspeople it was voted at Coventry [ 1460] " pat 
an honest man in euery ward shuld be assigned 
be pe Meir to go with pe waytes to gader thier 
wages quarterly etc. at the peticion of pe wates 
then beyng".^^ *' Allso [1423] pat thai haue of 
euery hall place jd., of euery Cottage ob., euery 
quarter ; & af tur per beryng bettur to be rewardyd. 
And also pai orden pat thei shall haue ij men of 
euery ward euery quarter to help them to gathur 
per Quarterage." *^ 

Street Cleaning. The final preparations for 
the festival were made by the council when they 
" ordeyned " the cleaning of the streets and as- 
signed stations where the plays were to be given. — 

Whoever lives between the Bear and Smithford-brook 
to pay 4d. towards clearing the river or provide a labourer 
to do it before the festival. ^^ 

Gardens beyond the walls are to be done away with be- 
fore Whitsuntide or 6s. Sd. fine.-^^ 

Every one having lands or tenements lying by the river 
from Crow-mill to Gosford-gate, to cleanse it opposite his 
tenement before Whitsuntide, or 20.?. fine levied by the 
mayor for this clearing. And the mayor to see to it that 

*^ Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 307. 

47 Ibid., p. 59. 

48 Ibid., p. 227. 
*^ Ibid., p. 220. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 45 

where the river has been encroached on by any one, that 
it shall be put right.^o 

It must be remembered that the Corpus Christi 
celebration was the greatest public event of the 
year, when thousands of people from all the neigh- 
boring sections flocked into the city to see the sights 
and help celebrate the day ; and the cleaning of the 
streets was but one of the many numerous prepara- 
tions for the coming event. Other preparations 
were the decorations, the banners, the flags, and the 
gay pendants. 

The streittis war all hung with tapestrie, 
Great was the press of peopill dwelt about. 

Station Banners. Then the evening before 
the plays were to begin the stations where the 
pageants were to halt were all marked with banners 
bearing the arms of the city. At York we find 
among the list of " Expenses necessary " for the 
year 1416 4J. " paid for a banner of Thomas Gaunt, 
for the Corpus Christi play, at the inn of Henry 
Watson " ; and " Margaret the sempstress " was 
paid 3d. " for the repair of the banners of the 
Corpus Christi play ".^^ There must have been 
something like twelve of these banners; for, since 
^399> the plays had been regularly given at twelve 
stations, and, though the records show that the 
exact playing places were changed the following 

50 Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 227. 

51 Davies, York Records, pp. 63 and 65. 



46 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

year, 14 17, yet we find that they still continued to 
be twelve in number. — 

For the convenience of the citizens and of all strangers 
coming to the said feast that all the pageants of the play 
called Corpus Christi Play should . . . begin to play, 
first— 

At the gates of the pryory of the Holy Trinity in 

Mikel-gate, next 
At the door of Robert Harpham, next 
At the door of the late John Gyseburn, next 
At Skelder-gate-hend and North-strete-hend, next 
At the end of Conyng-strete towards Castel-gate, next 
At the end of Jubir-gate, next 

At the door of Henry Wyman, deceased, in Conyng- 
strete. then 
At the Common Hall at the end of Conyng-strete, 

then 
At the door of Adam del Brygs, deceased, in Stayne- 

gate, then 
At the end of Stayn-gate at the Minster-gates, then 
At the end of Girdler-gate in Peter-gate, and lastly 
Upon the Pavement.^^ 

At York the number of stations at which the plays 
were given varied between twelve and sixteen; at 
Beverley in 1467 there were eight ; ^^ and at 
Coventry, probably ten.^* At Chester we do not 
know the exact number of stations, but only that 

52 Smith, York Plays, Introd., pp. xxxii-xxxiii. 

53 Chambers says. Mediaeval Stage, ii. 138, that there 
were only six stations at Beverley, but in this he is mani- 
festly wrong. Compare Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, 
pp. 135, 143. 

5* Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, xiii-xiv. 



u 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 47 

the plays "first beganne at ye Abbaye gates; &: 
when the firste pagiente was played at ye Abbaye 
gates, then it was wheeled from thence to the pen- 
tice at ye highe crosse before ye Mayor; and before 
that was donne, the seconde came, and ye firste 
wente in-to the water-gate streete, and from thence 
vnto ye Bridge-streete, and soe all, one after an 
other, tell all ye pagiantes weare played, appoynted 
for ye firste daye, and so likewise for the seconde 
& the thirde daye ".^^ 

Station Renting. What the earliest reasons 
were for assigning the playing stations to particular 
locations is not known, but they are conjectured to 
have been the places where the host in the proces- 
sion halted on its journey through the streets.^® 
As the plays and the procession gradually grew 
apart from each other, however, the assignment of 
stations in certain towns, at least at York, was 
influenced by more worldly and more lucrative 
motives. In 1399 at York the city council, because 
of complaint from the commons of the city that 
"the play and pageants of Corpus Christi day, 
which put them to great cost and expense, were not 
played as they ought to be, because they were ex- 
hibited in too many places, to the great loss and 
annoyance of the citizens, and of the strangers re- 
pairing to the city on that day ", determined that 
there should be twelve stations; but in 1417 they 

«5 Furnivall, Dlghy Mysteries, p. xix. 

^6 Cf. Davidson, English Mystery Plays, p. 91 ff. 



48 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

decided that * it was inconvenient, and contrary to 
the profit of the city, that the play should be played 
every year in the same certain places, and no 
others '. It was therefore voted ' that those per- 
sons should be allowed to have the play before their 
houses who would pay the highest price for the 
privilege, but that no favour should be shewn, the 
public advantage of the whole community being 
only considered \^^ Accordingly we find ** the 
mayor and commonalty " in 1478 granting for 
twelve years to Henry and Thomas Dawson, pike- 
mongers, a lease of ' Ludum sive lusum corporis 
xp'i annuatim ludendum in alta strata de O use gate 
inter tenementa in tenura prefatorum Henrici et 
Thome, scilicet, apud finem pontis Use ex parte 
orientali \^^ For this lease the Dawsons paid an 
annual rent of twelve shillings, and no doubt were 
accustomed to realize considerable profit by accom- 
modating spectators for the shows. It seems, how- 
ever, that not all the playing places were rented; 
for we learn that no rent was ever paid for the sta- 
tion before the Trinity gates, or for * the Common 
Hall, a place where " my Lady Mayres and her sys- 
ters [i. e. wives of the aldermen] lay ", or for the 
Pavement, a public place in the midst of the city \^^ 
The Pavement plainly was exempt because it was a 
public place ; " my Lady Mayres's " place was free 

s^ Davies, York Records, p. 241. 

^^ Quoted in Davies, York Records, p. 241. 

'^^ Smith, York Plays, Introd., p. xii. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 49 

because it was there that the nobiHty and the royal 
visitors of the city were entertained; and we shall 
see later that the station at Trinity church was not 
taxed because from old time the plays were first 
viewed there and censored by the clergy. 

Stations Sought. At other towns than York 
we do not hear of any rental of stations on the part 
of the city corporations, though we do find various 
lawsuits over rooms and houses from which the 
pageants might be viewed. At Chester there is a 
well known record of a suit " betwene John Whit- 
more, Esquier, upon thon partie and Anne Webster, 
widow, tenaunt to George Ireland, Esquier, upon 
thother partie for and concerning the claime righte 
and title of a mansion, Rowme, or Place for the 
Whydson plaies in the Brudg gate strete within the 
Cyty of Chester which varyaunce hath bene here 
wayed and considered by Ric. Button, Esquier, 
Maior of the Cyty of Chester, and Wm. Gerrard, 
Esquier, Recorder of the said Cyty, by whom it is 
now ordered that forasmuche as the said Mistres 
Webster and other the tenants of the said Mr. Ire- 
land have had their place and mansyon in the said 
place now in varyaunce in quiet sort for ii tymes 
past whan the said plaies were plaied. That the 
said Anne Webster in quiet sort for this presente 
tyme of whydsontide during all the tyme of the said 
plaies shall enjoy and have her mansyon, place, and 
the said place and Rome now in varyaunce".*® 

«o Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 304 ». 



50 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

From these and other instances, as well as from 
"pe request of pe Inhabitaunts [of Coventry, 
1494] dwellyng in Gosseford-strete that pe 
pageantes jerely frohensfurth be sette & stande at 
pe place there of olde tyme vsed [in Gosford 
Street], lymyt & appoynted ", it may be judged that 
the pageant stations were much sought after by 
the residents of the different wards. 

Appearance of the Stations. Of the actual ap- 
pearance of these stations there is perhaps little to 
be said, except that they were made in the ordinary 
street, street-corner, or inn-yard, and that the 
actual spot where the pageant-wagon was to halt 
was marked, as we have seen, with a banner bear- 
ing the arms of the city. An examination of the 
local maps of the towns where these plays were 
given shows that the places selected for the repre- 
sentation of the pageants, as nearly as we can iden- 
tify them now, were generally in the broadest 
streets of the town. For example. Dr. Craig has 
identified all the stations in Coventry ^^ as nearly 
as it seems possible, and in every case they were 
placed in the wide streets of the city. Gosford 
Street, Jordan Well, Much Park Street out at New- 
gate end. Little Park Street, — all were broad and 
ample in space for the pageants and their audiences. 
All the houses in the immediate neighborhood of 
the pageant stations were required by law to be 
decorated with flags, banners, garlands, and other 

^1 Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, pp. xiii-xiv. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 51 

holiday regalia, and each guild had its own scaf- 
fold on which its members and their friends sat to 
watch the plays. These scaffolds were variously 
known as stages, mansions, rooms, and castles, and 
were built by the tradesmen " of tree upon Monday 
in the Rogacion weeke, in the honor of Gode and 
the glorious confessor Saynt John". They were 
covered and decorated "in an ornamental 
fashion "^2 jji^^ ^.j^^ pageant-wagons themselves, 
and at Beverley in 1460 the directors of the 
pageants had a separate one in which they sat " to 
see and govern the pageants ".^^ 

Pageant-Master. Thus we have seen the 
general preparations and ordinances made by the 
city council in getting ready for the festival season, 
— the assignment of plays and playing-places, the 
proclamation of the banes, the clearing of the 
streets, and the other minor duties devolving on the 
mayor and aldermen. In the meantime, however, 
the trades companies were equally busy ; for theirs 
was the difficult and the crucial part of the cele- 
bration. The organization of their activities as a 
rule was under the general direction of the pageant- 
master, or warden, or alderman of the pageant, 
who was elected by the guild and was held gener- 
ally responsible for the production of the plays. 
Something of his duties at Coventry may be seen 
from the following: 

^2 Leach, Beverley Town Documents, pp. 34-5. 
63 Leach in Furnivall Miscellany, p. 215. 



52 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

These men above writen war acordid & agreed on munday 
nextbeforpalmesonday Anno H. (6th) xxxj. [1453,] That 
Thorn's Colclow skynner ffro this day forth shull have pe 
Rewle of pe pajaunt unto pe end of xij yers next folowing 
he for to iind pe pleyers and all \)t longeth D^rto all pe 
seide time save pe keper of the craft shall let bring forth 
pe pajant & find Cloys pt gon abowte pe pajant and find 
Russhes perto and every wytson-weke who pt be kepers of 
pe crafte shall dyne wt Colclow & every mastr ley down 
iiijd and Colclow shall have x^^^^ly ^or his labor xlvjs 
viijd & he to bring in to pe mastr on sonday next aftr 
corps xpi day pe originall & ffech his vij nobuUe^ and 
Colclow must bring in at pe latr end of pe timej all pe 
garments pt longen to pe pajant as good as pey wer de- 
lyvered to hym.^* 

Other examples of such " play lettine " can be 
traced at other towns, but the case of Colclow was 
an extreme one, the more usual thing being for the 
guilds to keep the management of their plays more 
directly under their own control. Such a custom 
was that at York where each company appointed 
two " pageant-masters " whose duty it was to 
collect the " pajaunt silver ", account for it and the 
playing gear, and train the actors in their parts. 
If they failed to produce their pageant, or if their 
play was not up to the standard demanded by the 
council, then both they and their company were 
fined for their neglect. At Beverley we find two 
shillings collected from " Richard Trollop, Alder- 
man of Payntours, for that his Play of ' Lez 3 
Kyngs of Colleyn ' was played badly and disor- 
derly, in contempt of the whole community, in the 
presence of many strangers ", and i2d. from 

^* Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 15. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 53 

"Richard Gaynstang, Alderman of Talours, for 
that his Play of ' Slepyng Pilate ', was badly 
played, against the ordinance made in that be- 
half ".^^ 

Revision o£ Plays. At Coventry the pageant- 
master was elected " a-pon saynt Thomas day in 
Christinmas weke ", and he seems to have begun 
his active duties early in the new year; for some- 
time in March or April, as we have seen above, the 
plays were probably determined upon by the alder- 
men and turned over to the pageant-master for safe 
keeping, for any necessary revisions, and for copy- 
ing the different parts. Considerable care and ef- 
fort too, even rivalry, seem to have been spent in 
the rewriting and revising of old scenes for the 
coming pageants. At Chester in 1575 we find a 
record of iSd. " spent at Tyer to heare 2 playes 
before the Aldermen to take the best ".^^ And 
when available plays and writers were not to be 
had at home, the councilmen went outside their 
town and got what they wanted. Consequently we 
find among the " Common Expenses " at Beverley 
in 1520 a note of " ys. spent by the 12 Governors 
being with Sir William Pyers, poet, at Edmund 
Metcalff's house to make an agreement with him 
for transposing [' transposicione '] the Corpus 
Christi Play ", and " 3^. 4c/. given to the said Wil- 
liam Pyers for his expenses and labour in coming 

^^Hist MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 172. 
66 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 305 n. 



54 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

from Wresill to Beverley for the alteration of the 
same ".^^ 

Causes of the Revisions. It is the large num- 
ber of these alterations and transpositions that has 
given modern students so much trouble in under- 
standing the texts of the plays and the methods of 
presentation. That any of the complete cycles 
were ever played just as we have them to-day in 
the MSS is extremely doubtful. The York spicers' 
scene, for example, would seem never to have been 
produced on any stage; for the sixteenth-century 
marginal note in the MS, probably written when 
the play-book was submitted to Dean Matthew 
Hutton in 1579, says: "Doctor, this matter is 
newly mayde, wherof we haue no coppy ".®® And 
the marshalls', cordwainers', and the sporiers and 
lorimers' plays in the same cycle were all rewritten 
after the full register v/as compiled. Likewise, at 
Chester the entire cycle seems to be a late copy of 
the plays made after the pageants were at an end. 
And the Towneley plays, Mr. Pollard tells us, are 
the work of three separate hands covering a period 
of something like a half-century. These revisions 
and alterations, it may be safely said, were made 
for one of four chief reasons: (i) because some 
craft had fallen into poverty and the matter in its 
play had to be incorporated with that of one of the 
preceding or of the succeeding pageants, like the 

«7 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 171. 
•68 Smith, York Plays, p. 93 m. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 55 

Chester drapers' Creation, Fall, and Cain's Sin or 
the Towneley Conspiracy, Supper, and Arrest of 
Christ, each of which seems to be a telescoping of 
two plays; (2) because a new craft had been added 
to the number of pageant producers since the pre- 
ceding year and a separate play had to be secured 
for the added company either by developing a new 
scene from a former incident, such as Thomas's 
vision, or by cutting off a part from one of last 
year's plays, as the York goldsmiths' Coming of the 
Three Kings to Herod; (3) because perhaps a 
company had tired of presenting the same scene 
from year to year and wished to add new material 
to the play, or to substitute an entirely new scene, 
like the Towneley First and Second Shepherds' 
Plays, or, possibly, " the matter of pe castell of 
emaus " added to the Coventry cappers' roll in 
1540; and (4) because change of religious feeling 
had made certain scenes unacceptable to the pub- 
lic, as when in 1548 at York " certen pagyauntes 
[were made] excepte, that is to say, the deyng of 
our lady, the assumption of our lady, and the 
coronacion of our lady ". The supervision of all 
such alterations and copies of the council register 
were a part of the pageant-master's preliminary 
duties in each guild in getting ready for the plays 
later. 

Selection of the Actors. The next move of 
the pageant-master, after revising the play and 
copying the individual parts, was to select his actors 



56 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

and begin rehearsals. At Coventry these players 
were procured, some of them certainly, from their 
own guilds; for in 1444 the council decreed that 
" per shall no man of the said iiij Craftes [the 
Cardmakers, Masons, Painters, and Sadlers] play in 
no pagent on Corpus Christi day save onely in the 
pagent of his own Crafte, without he have lycens 
of the maiour pat shal-be for the yer ".^^ This 
would argue as well, however, that the pageant- 
masters were accustomed to get their men from 
each other and, in fact, from all sources, — which 
was true. We hear of both clerks and laymen, 
professionals and amateurs being chosen for the 
plays. Some doubtless were actors of exceptional 
or unusual ability who had come from the neigh- 
boring towns for this special festival of the year; 
for we hear of London players and of at least one 
from Wakefield being at York in 1446,^^ and no 
doubt there were other borrowings of especially 
good actors from neighboring towns. The tend- 
ency, however, must have been to choose local play- 
ers as far as possible in order to restrict the guild 
expenses to the minimum, a fact which may in a 
measure account for the apology in " ye Banes or 
Breife of ye whitson playes in Chester " : 



By Craftes men & meane men these Pageauntes are played 
and to Commons and Contrye men acustomablye before. 
If better men & finer heades now come, what canne be 
saide? 

^^ Harris, Coventry Leet Book, i. 206. 
^^ Smith, York Plays, p. xxxviii. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 57 

But of common and contrye playeres take thou the 
storye.^i 

Care in the Choice of Actors. The plays were 
indeed given by craftsmen and common workmen 
and were often necessarily crude, yet the law and 
the pageant-masters were very careful about pro- 
curing as competent men as possible to represent 
the proper characters; the occasion was too im- 
portant and too solemn a one to allow any excuses 
from the players for improper or unskillful acting. 
Among the expenses of the Chester smiths one 
finds illustrative notices of money spent in 1567, 
for instance, " for the chosinge of the little god " ; 
4d. " on the Sonday morninge at hearinge of the 
Docters and little God " ; and lod. *' Spent at her- 
inge of the players ".'^^ Likewise at Newcastle- 
on-Tyne the company of fullers and dyers spent the 
comparatively large sums of los. in 1561 " for the 
rehersall of the play before ye crafft " and 3c/. " to 
a mynstrell yt nyght ".'^^ And it was ordered at 
York in 1476 with the full consent and authority of 
the council " pat yerely in pe tyme of lentyn there 
shall be called afore the maire for pe tyme beyng 
iiij of pe moste connyng discrete and able players 
within this Citie, to serche, here, and examen all pe 
plaiers and plaies and pagentes thrughoute all pe 
artificers belonging to Corpus Xti Plaie. And all 
suche as pay shall fynde sufficiant in personne and 

'■1 Furnivall, Digby Plays, p. xx. 

"^2 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 305 n. 

73 Brand, History of Newcastle, p. 371 n. 



58 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

connyng, to pe honour of pe Citie and worship of 
pe saide Craftes, for to admitte and able; and all 
oper insufficiant personnes, either in connyng, 
voice, or personne to discharge, ammove, and 
avoide "/* And at Chester, as an added precau- 
tion against careless work, the companies must re- 
hearse before " Mr. Maior " before the appointed 
day of celebration ; then if after all this precaution 
these actors failed in their parts, the craft that 
they represented was promptly fined for the shame 
which its company of players had brought upon the 
town. — 

Rob. Thornskew, aldermannus, monitus est hie xvj die 
Jun. ad exponendum vjs, viijd. eo quod lusores artis Car- 
pentariorum nesciebant ludutn suum die Corporis Christi 
contra poenam proclamationis communis campanatorisJ'^ 

Rehearsals. The rehearsals of the pageant- 
master in 1500 were a most serious, and usually a 
very thirsty, business. They were regularly and 
untiringly held from two to five times before the 
festival, and always a necessary accompaniment of 
any properly conducted rehearsal was the eating 
and drinking, with due emphasis on the latter. 
Some of the general rehearsal expenses for meat 
and drink are the following from the Chester 
smiths' accounts : 

1 561. Payed for the 1st reherse at Jo: Huntington's 
house, vid; Drink in barkers after the rehearse, xviiid. ; 

^* Smith, York Plays, p. xxxvii. 

"^^Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 136. 



PREPARATION FOR PAGEANTS 59 

For beaffe against the generall rehearse, vis. viiicl.; 3 
ould cheeses, iiiis.; Spent in Sir Rand. Barnes chamber to 
gett singers, iiid.; Spent at Rob. Jones' at rehearse, xixd. ; 
To Wm. Lutter [minstrell] at generall rehearse, iiiid. ob. ; 
6 crocks of alle at general rehearse, xs. ; a crocke of small 
ale and 2 gallons, xxd. ; A hoppe of wheate to the general 
rehearse, iis. iiid.: Bread and cakes for general rehearse, 
iis. viid. ; Wine to the said rehearse, iis. viid. ; For another 
hoppe of Wheate agayne the Whyttsontiddc, iis. iiid.'^s 

The proportion of bread and ale was about the 
same at Coventry, too, as at Chester. The 
Coventry smiths' account for 1490 has the follow- 
ing: 

Item payd at the Second Reherse in Whyttson- 

weke in brede Ale & kechyn . . . . ijs iiijd 
Inprimis for drynkynge at the pagent in hav- 

inge forthe in Wyne & ale vijd ob. 

Item for ix galons of Ale xviijd 

Item for a Rybbe of befe & j gose vjd 

Item for kechyn to denner & sopper . . . ijs ijd 

Item for a Rybbe of befe iijd 

Item for a quarte of wyne ijd ob. 

Item for an other quarte for heyrynge of proc- 

ula is gowne iJd ob.^^ 

Places for the Rehearsals. The pageant-mas- 
ter does not seem to have had any definitely re- 
served place or hall for holding his rehearsals, but 
rather to have taken his players through their parts 

76 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 305 n. 

77 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 16. 



60 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

at any place where he could most conveniently get 
them together. In 1466 the Coventry smiths held 
one of their rehearsals " in the parke "; in 1576 at 
'' sent marye hall " ; in 1579 '' in the palys " ; and in 
1584 " in Seint Nicholas hall ". In 1570 the 
Coventry vi^eavers held " ij rehersys in pe halle ", 
as if referring possibly to their guild-hall. At 
Chester, as we have seen above, the rehearsals ap- 
pear to have been held usually at the homes of the 
players themselves, though at other places as well, — 
*' at Jo : Huntington's house ", " in barkers ", " at 
Rob. Jones' ", " under St. John's ",^« etc. 

Other Duties. Nor did the pageant-master's 
duties end with the selection of the actors and the 
going through with the rehearsals. He must see to 
procuring capable singers for his plays, to borrow- 
ing or purchasing suitable costumes, to remodeling 
and repainting last year's pageant-wagon, to " hav- 
ing it out " and guarding it the night before the 
celebration, to *' horsing " it the next day, and to 
various other details too numerous to mention. 
These matters are of such a nature, however, that 
we may best understand them by postponing the 
discussion of them to the following chapters. 

■^8 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 305 n. 



Ill 

THE CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 

Procession and Pageants. The Corpus Christi 
procession, as we have seen, was first established at 
the Council of Vienna in 131 1, but we have no 
extant record of the time when the observance of 
the day was first introduced into England. There 
is the same uncertainty about the time when the 
pageants and the plays first became a part of the 
Corpus Christi ceremonies. Whether the cycles oi 
plays grew up by themselves and were then trans] 
ferred to Corpus Christi day and thus became mord 
or less attached to the procession, or whether theyl 
developed from pageant tableaux and dumb-shows 
in the annual procession, is not known. Davies 
thinks it '' not improbable that the celebration of 
the Corpus Christi Festival on its first introduction 
into this country was accompanied by the exhibi- 
tion of pageant plays produced by the several com- 
panies into which the tradesmen and artisans of 
cities and towns were then incorporated ".^ But 
there is a strong probability that the later Corpus 
1 York Records, p. 229. 

61 



62 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Christi cycles began in the procession as dumb- 
shows designed by the clergy to impress more forc- 
ibly on the people the doctrines of the church, and 
that as the " bas-relief of living figures counterfeit- 
ing a bas-relief of stone " became more and more 
popular, the earlier Christmas, Easter, and other 
biblical plays from the church were put into the 
mouths of the mimetic actors, and the dramas thus 
developed became the later Corpus Christi cycles. 
Our records here are unfortunately scrappy, as 
usual, but what evidence we have seems to bear out 
this theory. 

Hour for Starting the Procession. In the 
early years of the Corpus Christi festival, when 
the procession and the plays were all one, the cere- 
monies of the day seem to have begun at an early 
hour in the morning. The early beginning was 
necessary to make it possible to give the whole pro- 
gram in one day, even though a long midsummer 
one. What the exact hour was in the earliest years 
of the procession we do not know; but at York in 
1415 it was *' at the mydhowre betwix iiijth and 
vth of the cloke in the mornynge " ; at Coventry it 
was after breakfast, whatever time that may have 
been; at Lincoln in 1 5 18 it was at seven o'clock in 
the morning; and at Newcastle-on-Tyne the time 
was the same. The Newcastle ordinance of the 
" Felleship of Marchaunts " in 1480 is so specific 
and so exact in its requirements that it is well worth 
quoting : — 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 63 

The ackit of the prosescion of Corpus Christe Day. 

Also it is asentit, accordit, and agreit, by the said Felle- 
ship, in affermyng of gwd rewll to be maid and had, the 
whilk hath lang tym beyn abused emanks thaym, that 
wppon Corpus Christi Day yerly, in honoryng and wor- 
shippyng of the solemp procession, every man of the said 
Felleship beyng within the franches of this town the said 
day as it shall fall, shalle apper in the Beer Marcath by 
vij of clok in the mornyng, but he haff laytyng by in- 
fyrmyte, other ells he af speciall licanse by the said Mais- 
ter of the said Felleship, wppon payn of a fin by the de- 
fauters to be paid for every syke defaute, j pond wax to 
the Felleshep. Also that thair be a rowll mayd of all the 
names of the same Felleship, for the said procession, and 
accordyng to that rowll, callyd by the Clark, the lattast 
mayd burges to go formest in procession, withoutyn any 
contraryyng, wppon [oain] of forfeting wnto the Felle- 
shipp, for every sik defawte, xld. Provyded always that 
all those of the said Felleship that shalbe Mair, Shereff, 
and aldermen, with thaire officers and servandes, than 
beyng, attend wppon the holy sacramente. Provydet also, 
that all those of the said Felleship that as beyn maires, 
shereffs, and aldermen, in yerys by passyt, shall go prin- 
cypall in the sayd solemp procession, accordyng as they 
war chossen into the sayd officese.2 

Attendance upon the Procession. Attention 
should be called here to two things in this ordinance 
from Newcastle : ( i ) that attendance upon the pro- 
cession was by this time, not optional, but required ; 
and (2) that the position of each man in the line 
was arranged with a nice regard for precedence and 
etiquette. In the earliest years of the observance 

2 Dendy, Newcastle Merchant Adventurers, pp. 4-5. 



64 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

of the ceremony it may have been that a person's 
presence in the procession was regarded as an evi- 
dence of his acceptance of the dogma of transub- 
stantiation ; ^ but by this time, 1480, when the 
novelty of the ceremony had somewhat worn off, 
when the medieval love of splendor and show in 
pageantry had somewhat dimmed the original pur- 
pose of the procession, and when men had conse- 
quently lost much of their pious interest in the ob- 
servance of the feast, every master craftsman of 
every trade was required both by guild and by town 
ordinance to be present in person at the beginning 
of the procession. Later, moreover, when the re- 
ligious interest had still further waned and " the 
spontaneous expressions of piety " had failed to 
satisfy the desire for a brilliant procession, not only 
the master craftsmen, but the journeymen trades- 
men, and even the hirelings, were enjoined to be 
present. And in the last days of the festival 
strangers were admitted into the procession in 
many of the towns and hirelings allowed to take 
one's place, provided the proper livery was worn. 
Etiquette in the Procession. In the second 
place, it is to be noted in the Newcastle ordinance 
quoted above that the members of each craft were 
required to march in a strict order of precedence 
according to seniority, " the lattast mayd burges 
to go formest in procession ". And as among the 

3 Smith, English Gilds, p. Ixxxv ; Davidson, English 
Mystery Plays, p. 92. 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 65 

craftsmen, so among the guilds, the various com- 
panies took rank over each other according to age. 
The place of honor was that nearest the host, and 
all the craftsmen were jealous in the extreme of 
their places, so much so that their order had to be 
solemnly regulated by the town council. Even the 
aldermen, however, could not always satisfy their 
brethren, if we may judge from the frequent repeti- 
tions of laws regulating the order of the procession 
and imposing heavy fines for failure to comply. 

A remarkable instance of this failure of the city 
fathers to satisfy their fellow craftsmen is handed 
down to us from York in the reign of Henry VII, 
when a dispute on a point of etiquette in the pro- 
cession became so serious in the town as to threaten 
disastrous results. ''The contending parties were 
the Company of Weavers and the Company of 
Cordwainers ; and the important question to be de- 
cided was, whether the weavers or the cordwainers 
were entitled to walk on the right hand in the 
Corpus Christi procession. The quarrel com- 
menced prior to the accession of Henry VII. and 
was occasioned by an order of the council requiring 
the cordwainers, with their fourteen torches, to go 
on the weavers' left hand. The cordwainers re- 
garded this as a dishonorable position, and were so 
indignant at the preference shewn to the weavers, 
that, rather than comply with the order, they re- 
fused for several years to take any part at all in the 
procession." 



66 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

The authorities of the town, however, finally 
realized that such a bad example as this could not 
be allowed to pass unnoticed; so when the cord- 
wainers were again * rebell and disobeaunt' at Cor- 
pus Christi day, 1490, the town council with ' Mais- 
ter Tresorer of the Cathedral Church of York' as- 
sembled together in solemn conference " and fully 
determined that the penalty of iio incurred by the 
cordwainers for their offense, should be paid, ' and 
all such other punyshment of person of the said 
cordwainers for non-payment of the same, should 
be as provided.' " The magnitude of the trouble 
is shown by the fact that the council further deter- 
mined to write for advice to the king, to the lord 
chancellor, -to the Earl of Derby, and to any others 
thought necessary. 

This action, however, seems only to have pro- 
voked the company of cordwainers " to further re- 
sistance, in which they were encouraged by a fac- 
tious party in the city. A few days afterwards it 
was reported to the council that Sir Thomas Grib- 
thorpe, a priest, was overheard by another priest to 
say, that ' there shold be two hundred men that 
were no shomakers, to tak the part of shomakers, 
an thai myght gett a furiouse man to set thame 
apon wark,' and that the said shomakers ' wold 
spend large money or the Maior and his brethern 
shold opteigne aganest thame.' Another person 
heard the same Sir Thomas say, ' that there wold 
be three or four hundred men not being sowtors, 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION (^1 

that wold name thame self sowtors and tak the 
part with the sowtors, as if thai myght get a capi- 
tan to set thame apon werk, they shold strike their 
adversaries down.' " 

For some reason not known to us now the coun- 
cil failed to follow up its threat of punishment that 
year, and in the latter part of the following 
February a letter was had from the king's own 
hand advising the council to continue " the olde 
usages ". This seems to have settled the question 
temporarily; for the minutes of 1491 contain no 
reference to the trouble. But the good behavior of 
the cordwainers was not of long duration. " On 
the first of June, 1492, the council deemed it nec- 
essary to re-enact their ancient ordinances, by 
which the members of the corporation, and every 
gild, fraternity, art and occupation, were required 
to bear their accustomed number of torches in the 
procession under the penalties formerly imposed; 
and they again determined that the cordwainers 
should walk on the left hand of the weavers. 
Again the cordwainers were disobedient; and on 
the 28th of June the council ordered that * all such 
forfetts as be forfett for beryng of torches the 
morn aftir Corpus Xpi day last past, accordyng to 
old ordinaunces theruppon provided, shuld be 
leveed and rased withoute pardon, that is to say, of 
Roger Appulby, one of the xxiiijti, xls, of William 
Barker, merchaunt, another of the xxiiijti, xls ; and 
of the artificers of Cordwaners xli, for nown- 



68 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

beryng of their torcheg, accordyng to diverse old 
ordinaunce^ '. 

" Having thus asserted their authority, the coun- 
cil shovi^ed a disposition to conciliate the parties, 
and a few days afterwards they recommended the 
cordwainers to go to the weavers, ' to th'entent that 
a lovyng communication betwix theym might be 
had, and uppon such communication had, if the 
said occupations could be agreed of the premissej, 
then thay to cume to-fore the maire and his coun- 
seil, and gif a awnswere of the said communication 
wheder thai be agreid or noo, and if thai cannott 
be agreable emonst tham-selffe, than the maire and 
the councel for to tak such ordre betwix thame as 
tham should be most exspedient in that behalve/ 
After several months had passed, the cordwainers 
submitted, and the searchers with some of the 
principal members of the craft appeared person- 
ally in the council chamber, and ' ther laye down 
in a purse ensealed x/i, whiche they had forfet for 
nown-beryng of theyr torches the morn after 
Corpus Xpi day last past, puttyng the said xli in 
the will and discretions of the counseill, besechyng 
my lord the maier to be theyr good and tendre 
lord, and al my maisters the aldermen and other, 
of the counseill, good and tendre maisters, and not 
to take al that mony of theym, haveing in theyr 
discret and tendre consideration that the cause of 
their nown-beryng was only in John Crak and John 
Smyth, two of ther serssors, and not the defaut of 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 69 

the hole crafft, as they had shewed diverse and 
mony tymes hertofore.' " 

Whether the " good and tendre maisters " took 
all the cordwainers' ten pounds is not told us, but 
in the minutes of the following year, May, 1493, it 
was recorded that the craft of cordwainers * when 
the procession were solempnely done the morowe 
next after Corpus Xpi day, [were] to here their 
torches honestly made and lighted, with the craft 
of the weavers and going of the weavers' left 
handes, as had been there afore acustomed \* 

Development of the Plays. In the earliest 
processions the lay societies seem usually to have 
preceded the sacrament, while the clergy followed. 
Certainly this was the order of the processions at 
Coventry and Newcastle, though at York the crafts 
were put last. In this shift of the trades com- 
panies from the front to the rear may be seen, it is 
suggested,^ one bit of evidence in favor of the 
growth of the Corpus Christi plays from dumb- 
show pageants in the procession, since the pageants 
were usually presented by the craftsmen. Some- 
time shortly after the confirmation of the Corpus 
Christi feast in England, it is thought, pageants 
representing stories from the Bible were intro- 
duced by the trades companies, who had so far 
been present in the procession with their guild ban- 
ners only. These pageants at first were mimetic 

*Davies, York Records, pp. 250-7. 

5 Davidson, English Mystery Plays, p. 93. 



70 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

merely and seem to have been presented in the 
procession while moving. In a short time, how- 
ever, spoken drama, which had already begun in 
the church, was introduced into the Corpus Christi 
pageants. But spoken drama could be successfully 
given only during the halts at the stations, and 
therefore caused great delay for the clergy and 
other members of the procession following. In 
order to avoid this extension of the procession to 
an unreasonable length of time the plays were 
transferred from the front of the procession to the 
rear, a move which soon created a division be- 
tween the two parts because of the slower progress 
of the pageants. Yet, because of the inherited 
custom of following the course of the host, the 
plays, even after their separation from the proces- 
sion proper, continued to follow the traditional 
course. " Such," says Davidson, " seems to be a 
reasonable interpretation of the facts as presented 
by the records ".^ 

Beverley Mimetic Pageants. Let us look, 
however, at some of the scattering records which 
bear out this theory of the growth of the Corpus 
Christi plays in the procession. One of the 
earliest is an entry of a mimetic pageant at 
Beverley in 1355. This record states that " every 
year, on the feast of the Purification of the blessed 
Mary, all the bretheren and sisteren [of the Guild 
of St. Mary] shall meet together in a fit and ap- 

6 Loc. cit., p. 94. 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 71 

pointed place, away from the church; and there, 
one of the gild shall be^clad in coifiely fashion as 
a queen, like to the glorious Virgin Mary, having 
what may seem a son in her arms ; and two others 
shall be clad like to Joseph and Simeon; and two 
shall go as angels, carrying a candle-bearer, on 
which shall be twenty-four thick wax lights. With 
these and other great lights borne before them, and 
with much music and gladness, the pageant Virgin 
with her son, and Joseph and Simeon, shall go in 
procession to the church. And all the sisteren of 
the gild shall follow the Virgin; and afterwards 
all the bretheren; and each of them shall carry a 
wax light weighing half a pound. And they shall 
go two and two, slowly pacing to the church; and 
when they have got there, the pageant Virgin shall 
offer her son to Simeon at the high altar; and all 
the sisteren and bretheren shall offer their wax 
lights, together with a penny each. All this having 
been solemnly done, they shall go home again with 
gladness." ^ This, it is to be noted, is a mimetic 
pageant of the feast of the Purification rather than 
of Corpus Christi, but it may be taken as resem- 
bling very closely similar pageants in the Corpus 
Christi procession. 

Dundee. From Dundee comes also a record 
of dumb-show pageants. This gives " The Grayth 
of the Prossession of Corpus Christi, deliverit Sir 
Thomas Barbour " as follows : " In primis xxiij 

7 Smith, English Gilds, pp. 149-50. 



72 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

of crownis, vij Pair of angel reynis, iij Myteris, 
Cristi cott of letliyr, with the hosse and gluffis, 
Cristis hed, xxxj Suerdis, Thre lang corssis of tre, 
Sane Thomas Sper, A cors til Sane Blasis, Sane 
Johnnis cott, A eredil, & thre barnis maid of cloth, 
XX Hedis of hayr. The four evangellistis, Sane 
Katrinis quheil. Sane Androwis cros, A saw, a ax, 
a rassour, a guly knyff, A worm of tre. Sane 
Barbill castel, Abraamis hat & thre hedis of 
hayr." « 

Dublin. At Dublin, too, in 1478 we hear of a 
similar series of pageant-tableaux on Corpus 
Christi day. The record is found in the Chain 
Book of the city and was apparently entered in 
1498:— 

The pagentis of Corpus Christi day, made by an olde 
law and confermed by a semble befor Thomas Collier, 
Maire of the Citte of Divelin, and Juries, Baliffes and 
commones, the iiiith Friday next after midsomer, the xiii. 
yere of the reign of King Henri the Vllth [1498] : 

Glovers: Adam and Eve, with an angill followyng 
berryng a swerde. Peyn, xl.^. 

Corvisers: Caym and Abell, with an auter and the 
ofference. Peyn, xl.^*. 

Maryners, Vynters, Shipcarpynderis, and Samoun- 
takers: Noe, with his shipp, apparalid acordyng. Peyn, 
xl.^. 

Wevers: Abraham [and] Ysack, with ther auter and a 
lambe and ther offerance. Peyn, xl.^. 

Smythis, Shermen, Bakers, Sclateris, Cokis and 
Masonys; Pharo, with his hoste. Peyn, xl.^. 

8 Maxwell, Old Dundee, p. 562. 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 73 

Skynners, House-Carpynders, and Tanners, and Browd- 
ers: for the body of the camell, and Oure Lady and hir 
chil[d]e well aperelid, with Joseph to lede the camell, and 
Moyses with the children of Israeli, and the Portors to 
berr the camell. Peyn, xl.^. and Steyners and Peyntors 
to peynte the hede of the camell. [Peyn,] xl.s. 

[Goldsmy]this: The three kynges of Collynn, ridyng 
worshupfully, with the offerance, with a sterr afor them. 
Peyn, xl.^. 

[Hoopers]: The shep[er]dis, with an Angill syngyng 
Gloria in excelsis Deo. Peyn, kI.s. 

Corpus Christi yild : Criste in his Passioun, with three 
Maries, and angilis herring serges of wex in ther hands. 
[Peyn,] xl.^. 

Taylors: Pilate, with his fellaship, and his lady and 
his knyghtes, well beseyne. Peyn, xls. 

Barbors: An[nas] and Caiphas, well araied acordyng. 
[Peyn,] xl.s. 

Courteours: Arthure, with [his] knightes. Peyn, xl.s. 

Fisshers : The Twelve Apostelis. Peyn, xl.s. 

Marchauntes: The Prophetis. Peyn, xl..9. 

Bouchers: tormentours, with ther garmentis well and 
clenly peynted. [Peyn,] xl.s. 

The Maire of the Bulring and bachelers of the same: 
The Nine Worthies ridyng worshupfully, with ther fol- 
lowers accordyng. Peyn, xl.^. 

The Hagardmen and the husbandmen to berr the 
dragoun and to repaire the dragoun a Seint Georges day 
and Corpus Christi day. Peyn, xl.^.* 

Development from the Dumb-Shows. In all 

of these cases, it is to be noted, the actors were in 
the procession in character, and it is to be supposed 
that they conveyed the message of their pageants 

9 Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 363-4. 



74 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

by action only; i. e., without words, something in 
the manner of the Canterbury Watch, where the 
martyrdom of St. Thomas a Becket was repre- 
sented annually in mute drama/" That this was 
the custom at Dublin may be conjectured with 
some degree of certainty, since, in the case of the 
hoopers, the one representing the angel was re- 
quired to sing the Gloria during the course of the 
procession. But whether or not any attempt was 
made to talk while walking seems impossible to 
tell ; possibly so. But no English record has come 
down to us, though at Draguignan, France, we 
learn of such a custom in the Corpus Christi pro- 
cession : — 

Le dit Jeu Jora avec la procession comme auparadvant 
et le plus d'istoeres et plus brieves que puront estre seront 
et se dira tout en cheminant sans ce que personne du jeu 
s'areste pour eviter prolixite et confusion tant de ladite 
prosession que jeu, et que les estrangiers le voient aise- 
ment.^1 

Any such attempt to talk, or even to carry on con- 
nected pantomimic action, while in motion must 
necessarily have been accomplished only with great 
difficulty and must have resulted in the station 
halts. These halts in turn prolonged the proces- 
sion too much for some of the members and neces- 
sitated the transference of the embryonic cycle of 
plays to the rear. Yet the mere act of shifting the 
|)lays to the rear gave the actors more time for 

*o Compare Hist. MSS Comm., ix. i, 148. 
.11 Petit de Julleville, Les Mysteres, ii. 209. 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 75 

their scenes and possibly resulted in developing 
and perfecting the cycle. 

Spirit of the Festival. Of course the author 
does not claim that either this theory thus ad- 
vanced or the records cited to support it prove the 
development of the Corpus Christi cycles from 
tableaux in the procession, but only that the prob- 
ability of such an origin is strong. Probably this 
theory can never be either proved or disproved; 
for none of our extant records give more than the 
merest hints as to the growth of the plays. In 
one year they are unknown; in the next we find 
them full-fledged dramas and the principal part of 
the Corpus Christi celebration. For by the time 
our first records mention the plays in connection 
with the procession the festival has lost most of its 
significance as a religious celebration and has be-i 
come a day for feasting and eating as well as for 
psalm singing ; men have come to seek, not only thel 
thousand days of pardon, but a holiday as well. 
It is a feast that " shall be held on the festival of 
Corpus Christi; and, on each day of the feast, they 
shall have three flagons, and four or six tankards; 
and ale shall be given to the poor; and prayers 
shall be said over the flagons ".^^ And "every 
householder that dwellith in the hye way ther as 
the procession procedith, shall hang before ther 
doores and forefrontes beddes and coverynges of 
beddes of the best that thay can gytt, and strewe 

12 Records of the Tiler's Gild, Lincoln, in Smith's Eng^ 
lish Gilds, p. 184. 



76 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

before ther doores resshes and other suche flowers 
and strewing as they thynke honeste and clenly for 
the honour of Godd and worship of this citie ".^^ 
Separation of the Plays from the Procession. 
Such regulations as these imply that the festal 
spirit was uppermost ; and it was this holiday spirit 
that caused the final separation of procession and 
plays. Already, no doubt, a division had arisen 
between the two sections of the procession because 
of the slower progress of the pageants, but it re- 
mained for the secular element to effect the com- 
plete separation; for as the festival grew in im- 
portance and the holiday spirit began to prevail, 
there gradually developed a wider and wider 
divergence between the purely spiritual and the 
secular elements in the celebration. The result 
was that the plays and the procession had to be 
separated entirely. At Newcastle-on-Tyne the 
procession took place in the morning and the plays 
were given in the afternoon. At Beverley they 
were both on the same day, but apparently at dif- 
ferent times. At Chester the procession was at the 
regular Corpus Christi feast, the plays at Whit- 
suntide. And at York, where we have our fullest 
accounts of the clash between procession and plays, 
the former had to be postponed until the day after 
Corpus Christi on account of the '' revellings, 
drunkenness, clamour, singing, and other impro- 
prieties " which caused the people to lose '* the 

13 Davies, York Records, p. 247 n. 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 17 

benefit of the indulgences graciously conceded by 
Pope Urban IV. to those who duly attended the 
religious services appointed by the canons ".^* 

Order of the Procession. To return, however, 
to the procession proper : The line was formed, as 
we have seen above, at an early hour in the morn- 
ing, the time varying in the different towns. Each 
man had his individual position in the procession 
assigned according to his rank. In the earliest 
days the craftsmen led the procession and the 
ecclesiastics followed, but later this order was re- 
versed. After this change in the early order, we 
are told of the procession at York that a boy 
usually led the line, bearing in his hands a great 
cross. He was dressed " al in Whyte " and was 
followed immediately by the town clergy in white 
surplices. The ecclesiastics were followed in turn 
by the master of the Corpus Christi guild, who 
was supported on each side by a former guild-mas- 
ter and was followed by the six wardens of the 
guild, each carrying a white wand and wearing a 
silken stole around his neck. Next came the costly 
shrine, or pyx, of the Corpus Christi guild, which, 
with all its contents, was valued in 1547 at £210 
i8.y. 2d. 

The Shrine. This shrine, probably one of the 
most attractive features of the procession, was a 
gift to the guild in 1449 from the Bishop of Here- 
ford. It acquired its wealth from the donations of 

^* Davies, York Records, p. 243. 



78 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

pious members of the guild and the parish. Of 
this shrine the following minute description was 
given in 1547 when it came to be sold: 



First, the said shryne is all gilte, havyng 6 ymages 
gylded, with an ymage of the birthe of our Lord, of 
mother of perle, sylver and gylt, and 33 small ymages 
ennamyled stondyng aboute same, and a tablett of golde; 
2 golde rynges, one with a safure, and the other with a 
perle, and 8 other Httle ymages, and a great tablett of 
golde havyng in yt the ymage of our Lady, of mother of 
perle; which shryne conteyneth in lenght 3 quarters of a 
yerd and a nayle, and in brede a quarter di. and more, 
and in height di. yerd, over and besides the steple stond- 
yng upon the same. . . . 

The said steple havyng a whether cokke thereuppon, all 
gylte, and a ryall of golde, 4 olde nobles, 2 gylted grootes 
hangyng upon the said steple, and also beyng within the 
same steple a berall, wheryn the sacrament is borne, 
havyng in the said berall 2 ymages or angells of sjdver and 
gylt, bcryng up the said sacrament, the foote and coveryng 
of whiche saide berall is sylver and gylte, weyng togeder, 
with the golde and berall, besides the said shryne, 181 
onzes. . . . 

A sylver bell hangyng in the said steple, weyng 3 onzes 
and di.15 

This shrine was borne by two of the guild- 
wardens, two others of whom kept the crowd in 
order. At Coventry it was sheltered with " A 
canope of silk brodured with gold with ij sidej of 
the same " carried by " iiij burgesses ". At Coven- 
i^Skaife, Guild of the Corpus Christi, York, pp. 296-7. 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 79 

try, too, six children were paid by the St. Nicholas 
and Corpus Christi guilds one year " for beryng vj 
torches by the Sacrament " and four men were 
employed " to here the iiij gret torches ".-® Then 
came the choristers in white surplices, chanting the 
services assigned for the day. 

City Officials. After the host came on horse- 
back the Lord Mayor, who at Coventry wore "a 
Crown of sylver & gyld ". " Mr. Maior " was fol- 
lowed by the aldermen and other city officers, " too 
and too together", all fittingly arrayed in their 
most splendid ceremonial robes and bearing their 
required number of wax torches. In 1572 the 
splendor of the pageantry was increased by an 
order for the sheriffs " to ryde with harnessed men 
accordyng to the ancient custome, and every alder- 
man to fynde sex men, wherof iiij to be in white 
armour, and ij in coates of plate, and every of the 
xxiiijor to fynd iiij men, wherof ij to be in white 
armour, and ij with calevers, towerds the said 
rydyng ".^^ 

Craftsmen. The city officials were succeeded 
by the craftsmen, who, as stated above, took their 
places according to a legally prescribed order of 
precedence, which, by the time our earliest extant 
records reach us, seems to have been fixed accord- 
ing to the date of the guild formation. At Bever- 
ley the order was as follows : 

1^ Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 162. 
1" Davies, York Records, pp. 269-70. 



80 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 



In primis 


the- xij Governors. 


Item, 


Alderman of 


Wevers 


Item, Alderman of Merchants 






Walkers 




Drapers 




" 


Glovers 




• Bowchers 




« 


Bowers 




* Baxters 




" 


Cowpera 




* Wryghts 






and 




Smyths 






Fletchers 




• Taylors 




(• 


Wattermen 




Tylers 




•• 


Potters 




• Shorn akers 




•* 


Barbors 




• Lyttsters 




<• 


Cappers 




* Barkers 






and 








Hatters 








«< 


Sadyllers.i8 



It is noticeable here that only the aldermen of 
the guilds were allowed in the procession and that 
the merchants' alderman came first in the line. 
At Coventry, however, where the laity preceded 
the shrine, we find the order reversed and the 
mercers, the oldest company in that city too, coming 
last :— 

Pur le Ridyng on Corpus Christi day and for Watche 
on Midsomer even. 

The furst craft, ffyshers and Cokes. Baxsters and 
Milners. Bochers. Whittawers and Glouers. Pynners, 
Tylers and Wrightes. Skynners. Barkers. Coruisers. 
Smythes. Weuers. Wirdrawers. Cardmakers, Sadelers, 
Peyntours and Mason [s]. Gurdelers. Taylours, Walkers 
and Sherman. Deysters. Drapers. Mercers.^^ 

At Coventry the tradesmen followed their torches, 
the bearers of which wore white surplices. Here, 
as everywhere else, the craftsmen were dressed in 
their guild livery ; and it is suggested by Mr. A. F. 
Leach ^° that the origin of such liveries, which 
were compulsory — as, for that matter, were the 

'^^Hist MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 69. 
1^ Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 220. 
20 Beverley Town Documents, p. Iviii. 



CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION 81 

banners and torches which the craftsmen carried, — 
may perhaps have been connected with these reHg- 
ious functions. 

Players in the Procession. Along with each 
company of craftsmen, of course, went their 
pageants and their actors, both of whom continued 
to hold their accustomed places in the rear of the 
procession even after the complete separation of 
the plays and their postponement to other dates. 
Indeed, this preliminary parade of the players and 
the pageant-cars in later times seems to have 
served often as an advance advertisement of what 
was to be found in the plays of the afternoon, or 
the next day, or the following Whitson week. At 
Lincoln in 15 15 the players not only were required 
to go in character in the procession, but constables 
were stationed " to wait upon the array in proces- 
sion, both to keep the people from the array, and 
also to take heed of such as wear garments in the 
same ".^^ At Coventry, too, though the pageant- 
wagons do not seem to have passed in procession, 
the actors themselves were present. Herod was 
there on horseback and in painted garments. 
Mary, " Katryne & Margaret ", and " viij virgyns " 
were represented; Gabriel was paid 4d. for 
" beryng the lilly " ; and James, Thomas of India, 
and " X other apostells " were paid for bearing 
torches.22 And the great gilded pageant-wagons 

21 Hist. MSS Contm., xiv. 8, 25. 

22 Sharo, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 162 ff. 



S2 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

enriched the procession with their flags, garlands, 
and banners. But these are of so much importance 
to the present study that it will be necessary to 
take them up separately in the next chapter. 



IV 

THE PAGEANTS 

The Pageant- Wagon. The general appearance 
and characteristic features of the Corpus Christi 
pageant-cars have been familiar for scores of 
years through the accounts of Dugdale, Rogers, 
and others. Perhaps the best description is that 
of Rogers, who says of the Whitsun plays at 
Chester that they were presented on " a high 
scaffolde with two rowmes, a higher and a lower, 
upon four wheeles [in another MS. six wheeles]. 
In the lower they apparelled themselves, and in the 
higher rowme they played, beinge all open on the 
tope, that all behoulders might heare and see them. 
The places where they played them was in every 
streete. They begane first at the abay gates, and 
when the firste pagiante was played, it was wheeled 
to the highe crosse before the maior, and so to 
every streete [i. e., the four principal streets, the 
order being ist Watergate, 2nd Bridge Street], and 
soe every streete had a pagiante playinge before 
them at one time, till all the pagiantes for the day 

83 



84 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

appointed weare played. And when one pagiant 
was neere ended, worde was broughte from streete 
to streete, that soe they mighte come in place 
thereof, exceedinge orderlye, and all the streetes 
have theire pagiantes afore them all at one time 
playeinge together; to see which playes was greate 
resorte, and also scafoldes and stages made in 
those places where they determined to playe theire 
pagiantes."^ 

Dugdale's Statement. Dugdale, too, says of 
the plays at Coventry : " Before the suppression 
of the monasteries, this city of Coventry was very 
famous for the pageants that were played therein 
upon Corpus Christi day, which occasioning very 
great confluence of people to it from far and near, 
were of no small benefit thereto; which pageants 
being acted with mighty state and reverence by the 
friers of this house, had theatres for the several 
scenes, very large and high, placed upon wheeles, 
and drawn to all the eminent parts of the city, for 
the better advantage of the spectators ".^ 

Strutt's Description. Strutt, however, in his 
Manners and Customs (1776) gives a very differ- 
ent description of these stages. " In the early 
dawn of literature ", says he, " and when the 
sacred mysteries were the only theatrical perform- 
ances, what is now called the stage did then con- 
sist of three several platforms, or stages raised one 

1 Quoted in Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and 
Tudor Reigns, pp. 303-4. 

2 Dugdale, Monasticon Anglicanum, vi. 3, 1534. 



THE PAGEANTS 85 

above another; on the uppermost sat the pater 
coelestis, surrounded with his angels; on the sec- 
ond appeared the holy saints and glorified men; 
and the last and lowest was occupied by mere men, 
who had not yet passed from this transitory life 
to the regions of eternity. On one side of this 
lowest platform was the resemblance of a dark 
pitchy cavern, from whence issued appearance of 
fire and flames ; and when it was necessary, the 
audience were treated with hideous yellings and 
noises, as imitative of the howUngs and cries of 
the wretched souls tormented by the relentless 
daemons. From this yawning cave the devils them- 
selves constantly ascended, to delight and to in- 
struct the spectators ; to delight, because they were 
usually the greatest jesters and buffoons that then 
appeared; and to instruct, for that they treated 
the wretched mortals who were delivered to them 
with the utmost cruelty, warning thereby all men 
carefully to avoid the falling into the clutches of 
such hardened and remorseless spirits.— But in the 
more improved state of the theatre, and when 
regular plays were introduced, all this mummery 
was abolished, and the whole cavern and devils, to- 
gether with the highest platform before mentioned, 
entirely taken away, two platforms only then re- 
maining; and these continued a considerable time 
in use, the upper stage serving them for chambers, 
or any elevated situations."^ This description has 

3iii. 130. 



86 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

been thought to refer to the Corpus Christi stage; 
but since Strutt gives no authority for his state- 
ment of the three platforms, and since such a 
stage would not conform to " the varied subjects 
of the Corpus Christi plays ", Sharp long ago con- 
jectured,* and rightly, too, that Strutt must have 
had reference to a fixed stage such as was cus- 
tomarily used for the French Passion plays.^ 

Thus, one may readily see, we are dependent for 
our direct information about the Corpus Christi 
stage on the brief statements of Rogers and Dug- 
dale. The modern student who wants specific in- 
formation, however, finds these descriptions defect- 
ive. From them he learns only that the pageant- 
wagon was movable, that it was placed on four, or 
six, wheels, that it was composed of two stories, 
the lower of which was used for dressing, the 
upper for acting, and that it was very large and 
high. Further inferences can not be drawn from 
these descriptions, and any more detailed informa- 
tion must be obtained from indirect sources. 

Other Sources of Information. Fortunately, 

* Coventry Mysteries, p. 24. 

5 Compare the colored drawing of the stape used for 
playing the Passion at Valenciennes in 1547, printed in 
Petit de Julleville's Histoire de la Langue et de la Littera- 
ture francaise, ii. 416. Similarly, M. Jusserand has repro- 
duced in the Furnivall Miscellany, pp. 192 and 194, two 
miniatures of what he regards, or once regarded, as Cor- 
pus Christi stages of the fourteenth century, but Professor 
Manly has pointed out that these are probably no more 
than pictures of puppet-booths. Cf. Nation, Ixxiv. p. 465. 



THE PAGEANTS 87 

from the extant remnants of old guild accounts and 
town records and from the MSS of the play-cycles 
that have come down to modern times, materials 
can be collected piecemeal and then assembled, so 
as to furnish us with a fairly definite idea of the 
construction and appearance of a Corpus Christi 
pageant. 

Norwich Grocers' Pageant. One source full 
of such details is the " Inventory of ye p'ticulars 
appartaynyng to ye Company of ye Grocers " 
found among some extracts made in the eighteenth 
century from the books of the Norwich grocers' 
company. From this inventory we learn that their 
pageant-car was " a Howse of Waynskott, paynted 
and buylded on a Carte, with fowre whelys ", that 
it had a " square topp to sett over ye sayde Howse ", 
" A Gryffon, gylte, with a fane to sette on ye sayde 
toppe ", " A bygger Iron fane to sett on ye ende of 
ye Pageante ", " iiij'^^ iij small Fanes " encircling 
the top, and " 3 paynted clothes to hang abowte 
ye Pageant ". We learn also that the stage of this 
pageant contained a tree, possibly the Tree of 
Knowledge of Good and Evil, to which flowers 
were bound with " collerd thryd " and which was 
laden with " orenges, fyges, allmondes, dates, 
Reysens, preumes, & aples ".® 

To this somewhat indefinite, generalized descrip- 
tion of the Norwich grocers' pageant-car it may be 

6 Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, p. xxxii and n.; 
Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 388. 



88 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

added that the wagon contained double stages, both 
of which were used for acting — the upper repre- 
senting heaven, the lower paradise and the earth, — 
and that the paradise platform was raised a step or 
so above that of the earth/ Other stages, we find, 
customarily had one or more of these individual 
raised platforms, called sedes, locus, or domus, 
which were separate, elevated stages set on the 
regular pageant stage and used to represent special 
towns, houses, or temples.^ All these stages were 
covered with rushes, and, if we may judge from 
the Coventry cappers' pageant-car,^ ledges were put 
around the outside of the main stages to keep the 
actors from accidentally stepping off. 

Hell-mouth. Perhaps at this point, in connec- 
tion with the stages of the processional pageant, 
the famous medieval hell-mouth ought to be men- 
tioned. Hell, to the medieval type of mind, was a 
fearful thing, and in the religious plays of the 
Corpus Christi class the authors are fond of re- 
presenting it as often and in as awful a way as 
possible, perhaps as a judicious warning of the 
wrath to come. 

Mr. V. E. Albright in a neatly drawn, imaginary 
picture of the Mary Magdalene stage ^° has por- 
trayed the hell sedes in that play as a plain, ordi- 
nary, covered platform with two devils on the 

7 C/. Chapter V. 

8 Cf. Chapter V. 

® Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 47. 
^0 The Shaksperian Stage, p. 16. 



THE PAGEANTS 89 

boards and several other demons peeping out from 
curtains beneath the stage. This misconception of 
the scene would seem to have had as its basis a 
misunderstanding of the stage-direction after line 
357 of the play : '' Here xal entyr pe prynse of 
dylles In a stage, and Helle ondyr-neth pat stage ".^^ 
Mr. Albright may be right in his general concep- 
tion of the staging of the Mary Magdalene play- 
in fact, he probably is correct,— but all the weight 
of existing evidence is against the probability of 
such a hell-stage as he has pictured. 

Perhaps we can best visualize the hell of the 
Corpus Christi stage by considering several scenes 
in which it was presented— scenes, too, which show 
how the dramatists of that day were themselves 
lacking in a definite conception of hell-mouth. For 
example, the writer of the Chester plays makes the 
devil in the drapers' Creation and Fall " Come vp 
ovt of a hole " to tempt Adam and Eve, thus sug- 
gesting the conventional dragon's-mouth entrance; 
and yet in the cook's Harrowing of Hell later in the 
same cycle Christ speaks of the entrance to hell as ^,,, 
if it were a pair of gates. In the latter pageant, 
which contains one of the scenes where the method 
of presenting hell-mouth is most difficult to ex- 
plain, the play is prefaced with a stage-direction 
that primo fiat lux in inferno materialis aliqua 
subtilitate machinata. Because of this light, com- 
motion is immediately raised among the inhabitants 

iiFurnivall, Digby Plays, p. 67. 



90 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

on the inside, Adam, Isaiah, David, John the Bap- 
tist, and the rest, all of whom offer various sugges- 
tions as to what the light means. Then follows : — 

Tunc . . . dicat Jesus, Attolite portas, prin- 
cipes, vestras, et elevamini porte eternales, et in- 
troibit rex glorie. 

Jesus. 

Open up hell gates anon, 
You princes of pyne everye eichone, 
That Codes sonne male in gone. 
And the kinge of blesse. 

And if we should wish to complicate still further 
the method of representing hell-mouth on the 
Corpus Christi stage, we might add the speeches of 
Christ and Belial in the York saddlers' Harrowing 
of Hell:— 

Jesus. Attolite portas principes, 
•Oppen vppe ^e princes of paynes sere, 
Et eleuamini eternales, 
Youre yendles ^atis pat ^e haue here. 

Belliall. We! spere oure gates, all ill mot 

pou spede, 
And sette furthe watches on pe wall. — 

11. 121-40. 



THE PAGEANTS 91 

These speeches and directions, if taken by them- 
selves, would imply hells with battlemented walls 
and with gates for entrances — in fact, little more 
than a conventional reproduction of the picture im- 
plied in a part of the twenty-fourth Psalm. And 
yet we have seen that the author, or authors, of the 
Chester plays speaks of hell-mouth earlier in the 
cycle as a hole from which the devil shall enter 
paradise. It is also known that the almost uni- 
versal medieval conception of hell-mouth, for some 
reason, was that of a dragon's head with wide-gap- 
ing jaws, long, sharp, exaggerated teeth, and gleam- 
ing eyes. How, then, were hell-mouth and the 
gates and battlements of hell represented in the 
York and Chester plays? 

The answer to this somewhat vexing problem is 
to be found in a hypothetical composite of two pic- 
tures printed by Sharp in his famous Disserta- 
tion}" In one of these the artist, if we may call 
him such, has represented hell-mouth as a great 
dragon's gaping jaws, between which is set a door, 
or gate, which an angel is unlocking. And inside 
are discernible various men, women, devils, priests, 
kings, and other unfortunates. 

A mere glance at this reprint shows that such 
a hell-mouth as the one depicted here might well 

12 Plates 5 and 6, opposite p. 62. One of these is a copy 
of an eleventh century drawing in the Cotton library of 
the British Museum, the other an engraving from a fresco 
painting over the arch which separates the nave and chan- 
cel in the Chapel of the Holy Cross at Stratford-on-Avon. 



92 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

have served as the hell-gates of the Chester plays, 
and, had the entire picture with all its surrounding 
walls been given us, it might possibly have fur- 
nished the battlements demanded by the York Har- 
rowing of Hell. The only thing lacking is the v/all 
about the dragon's mouth, which is just the feature 
given in the other picture. In this we have a view 
chiefly of the exterior of hell (though we are al- 
lowed to get a glimpse through one of the walls 
into the depths of the place). Hell as represented 
here is a walled and battlemented furnace filled 
with flame and entered through the jaws of a big- 
eyed, yawning dragon. On the walls are two 
demons blowing horns, one sitting, the other lean- 
ing over, and inside the place of torment are seen 
Envy, Gluttony, and one other, all of whom a 
devil is chastising with a rope scourge. Wrath 
and three others are just walking into the jaws of 
hell; a demon off to the right is bringing in Pride 
on his shoulders; one to the left, with a pitchfork 
in his hand, is dragging a man by the left leg; 
while immediately in front another devil is drag- 
ging by a chain Avarice and his companions, who 
are being driven from behind by a bigger devil 
with an enormous club. In the background is still 
another horned, long-tailed, and crooked-snouted 
demon carrying a pitch-fork.^^ 

13 Beneath this picture as given by Sharp is another 
representing an interior view of hell. This, however, 
shows nothing of the exterior nor of the mode of entrance 
and is of no service here. 



THE PAGEANTS 93 

From these two engravings one may understand 
how the York and Chester plays might easily have 
been staged with walls and gates and the conven- 
tional dragon's head. The important thing to note, 
however, is that the hell-head was probably there. 
It is to be found in both of the pictures; it is 
referred to in the earHer Chester scene; and we 
know that it was the accepted symbol of a hell- 
scene. Sharp prints two other hell-pictures, both 
of which show the customary gaping dragon's head, 
and he takes it as the regularly recognized symbol 
of hell on the stage. 

The representation of walls along with the 
dragon's head was of course common in the pic- 
tures of this time, but it is not therefore neces- 
sarily to be argued that the gates were always, or 
indeed often, set between the jaws. In fact the 
illustration given by Sharp is the only one the pres- 
ent writer has found which puts the gates into the 
conventional, medieval hell-mouth. This picture 
seems to represent an attempt to reconcile the com- 
mon conception of hell-mouth with the passage in 
Psalm xxiv. But numerous other examples of the 
representation of hell-mouth as a dragon's head 
are at hand. In the beautiful colored drawing of 
the stage used for playing the Passion at Valen- 
ciennes in 1547 hell-mouth was a dragon's head 
with red, cavernous jaws and green eyes.^* The 
miserere in Ludlow church, England, represents a 

1* Cf. Petit de Julleville, Histoire de la Langue et de la 
Litterature francaise, ii. 416. 



94 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

demon carrying off a fraudulent ale-wife with her 
gay head-dress and false measure toward hell- 
mouth, which is a dragon's gaping, long-toothed 
jaws.^^ At Lincoln among the list of appurten- 
ances and properties for the play of the " storye of 
Tobias in the Old Testament" in 1564 there is re- 
corded " First, hell mouth, with a neither chap ",^^ 
as if the mouth were made to open and shut. In 
the Coventry drapers' accounts for 1537, 1538, 
1542, 1554, 1556, 1565, and 1567 items are found 
" for payntyng & makyng newe hell hede ", " for 
mendyng of hell hede ", " for kepynge hell hede ", 
and *' for makyng hell mowth and cloth for hyt ".^^ 
In 1557 the Coventry drapers paid 4d. " for kepyng 
of fyer at hell mothe "/® On one occasion at 
Coventry hell itself caught fire and almost burnt 
up.^^ And in Sackville's Induction to the Mirrour 
for Magistrates we find a description of hell so 
closely resembling the hell-mouth of the stage that 
one might almost say the author of the poem was 
describing some Corpus Christi play he had seen: 

An hideous hole, all vaste, withouten shape, 
Of endles depth, orewhelmde with ragged stone, 
With ougly mouth, and griesly iawes doth gape, 
And to our sight confounds it selfe in one.^o 

15 Booklover's Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, p. 
126; Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 314 n. 

'^^ Hist. MSS Comm., Lincoln MSS, p. 58. 

17 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 61. 

18 Ibid., p. 73. 

1^ Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 3i5- 
20 Haslewood, Mirror for Magistrates, ii. 1. 317. 



THE PAGEANTS 95 

Size of the Pageant-Car. Of the actual size of 
the Corpus Christi pageant-cars, and hence of the 
stages, very Httle is known. Dugdale describes the 
wagons as large and high; and the fact that they 
were sometimes placed on six wheels would in- 
dicate pageants of considerable size. The fact 
that they were sometimes placed on four wheels 
would also indicate that they were not all of the 
same size. At Coventry in 1435 there is a record 
that *' a parcel of land in Mill Lane, adjoining the 

* Tailour paiont ' [house] being 30^^ feet wide and 
703/2 long, was granted and let for 80 years to John 
Hampton and 7 others, paying 3s. 8d. rent, and 
covenanting to erect thereupon during that term 

* unam domum vocatum a Paiont hows ', and to 
keep the same in good repair during the said 
term ".^^ From this entry some vague idea of the 
size of one of these wagons might be gained, were 
it not for the fact that, as we shall see later, more 
than one pageant was often stored in the same 
house. On such a plot of ground, at any rate, a 
pageant-house might be built big enough to con- 
tain a very large wagon. 

Gaudy Decorations. As may readily be sur- 
mised from the extravagant tastes of the pageant- 
loving medievalists, as well as from the description 
of the Norwich grocers' pageant given above, all 
the play-wagons were gaily and profusely, even 
gaudily, ornamented. As an example may be cited 

21 Weavers' Pageant of the Presentation in the Temple, 
p. 25. 



96 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

the Chester mercers, whose pageant-wagon pre- 
senting Christ in the manger ought to have been a 
simple one; yet theirs was most gorgeously dec- 
orated : — 

The mercers worshipfull of degre 
The presentation that have yee 

Of caryage I have no doubt 

Both within and without 

It shall be deckyd yt all the Rowte 

Full gladly on it shall be to loke. 

With sundry cullors it shall glime 

Of velvit satten and damaske fine 

Taffyta sersnett of poppyngee grene.22 

The Chester wrights, in like manner, furnished a 
" well decked carriage ", and the " Drawers of 
Dee " had their ship painted round with beasts 
and fowls of all kinds to represent, or symbolize, 
the " two of a kind " taken into the ark. In time 
these decorations came to be required, so that by 
1520 we find the town council of Beverley fining 
the alderman of the drapers " because his pageant 
was not covered with decent dresses "P The 
stage floors were always covered with rushes, and 
and somewhere on the wagon was hung a banner 
bearing the arms of the city. At York the regula- 
tion about the banners was so strict that the com- 
panies were forbidden to place aliqua signa, arma, 

22 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 307. 

23 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 172. 



THE PAGEANTS 97 

vel insignia super paginam predictam nisi tantum 
arma cujus hon, civitatis.'^^ These decorations 
seem usually to have been provided under the gen- 
eral supervision of the pageant-master, except at 
Coventry, v^here there was a decorator, or 
*' dresser ", v^ho was regularly paid " for swep- 
yng the pagent & dressyng ".^^ 

Cost of a Pageant. The cost of a pageant-car 
and the general expenses for the production of a 
play have been found at various times in the ac- 
count books of the guilds, ys. yd. was paid by the 
Coventry drapers in 1520 for the timber to make 
their pageant for the Doomsday play, and the total 
cost of a new ship for the Hull Noah's Ark play ^^ 
was £5 8^. 4d. in 142 1 and £5 8^. in 1494. The 
Chester smiths, however, paid something less than 
half this amount in 1561 for their carriage for the 
scene of the Purification of Mary. The full entry 
is as follows : 

1561. Tymber (for the Carriage), 8/4; to carter and 
men to get it out, 7d. ob. ; Wod to make welles, 3/4; 
Cartwright making the wheles, 7/4; Bords and other 
tymber, 5/-; The wright making the Carriage and for 
berrage [drink-money] 8/5, nayls 6d. ; Wrightes setting 
the wheles, viiid. ; A pound of grey sope for the wheles, 
iiid. ; Nayles to dresse the Carriage, iiid. ob. ; Makyng a 
fayre paynting and dressynge the pillers gere and a 

2* Smith, York Plays, p. xxv n. 

25 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 21 and 48. 

26 This was probably not a regular Corpus Christi play, 
but from the entry one may gather something of the cost 
of a pageant-wagon. 



98 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

crowne for Mary; 3 Curten cowerds [cords], iiid.; pynnes, 
iiid.27 

Cost of the Production of a Play. But the 

expense of the pageant-car was not annual, as was 
that of the production of the play. A pageant- 
wagon might with judicious repairs be made to 
last indefinitely, but the cost of a play was an 
annual burden, which, however, varied with the 
different guilds and in different years. The cause 
of this variation is not hard to find when we come 
to examine the plays and the circumstances under 
which they were produced. For example, a simple 
scene like the York plasterers' Creation to the 
Fifth Day with only one character and one short 
scene, or the wine-drawers' Appearance to Mary 
Magdalene with two characters, could not be ex- 
pected, other things being equal, to cost nearly as 
much as, for example, the mercers' Doomsday 
with thirteen characters, or the goldsmiths' Adora- 
tion with ten persons and two scenes. There were 
also natural economic changes in the prices of 
materials; and some years, of course, more prop- 
erties were to be bought and more repairs to be 
made on the carriages. Thus the charges for per- 
forming the Coventry drapers' play. Sharp tells 
us,^^ varied from 21s. to £4 8^. 6d.; and from the 
same source we learn that the annual costs of the 
cappers' pageant was about 35^. until 1550, and be- 

27 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 305 n. 

28 Coventry Mysteries, p. 68. 



THE PAGEANTS 99 

tween 45^. and 50^. afterwards. In 1490 the total 
cost of the smiths' pageant was £2. i\s. gy2dr^ In 
1534, the first time the cappers produced their 
recently acquired play, 31J. 5>^c?. was spent in 
* Reparacions made of the Pageant & players ger' 
and 30^. 4d. for rehearsals and the regular ex- 
penses on Corpus Christi day.^^ In 1523 the weav- 
ers spent 2ys. 8>4c/. on their play and 30^. 8>^c?. in 
1524.^^ And as an example of the usual charges 
the following from the weavers' records for 1565 
may be examined : 

In primis for Ij rehersys ijs 

Item payd for the dryving of the pagente .... \'d 

Item paid to Symeon ijjs mjd 

Item paid to Josephe ijs injd 

Item paid to Jesus ^^^ 

Item paid to Mary ^^^ 

Item paid to Anne ^^d 

Item paid to Symeon's clarke x^cd 

Item paid to the ij angells \]]\^ 

Item paid to the chylde ]]]]^ 

Item paid for russhes, packthryd & nayls . . • mjd 
Item paid to James Hewete for his rygoles . . . xxd 

Item paid for syngyng ••^^^•j 

Item paid for gloves ijs ijd 

Item paid for meate in the bocherye . . • • xs ixd 

Item paid for bread & ale ... • • • vijs viijd 

Summe xliiijs iijd.32 

29 Sharp pp 15-17. But note that the sum as given in 
Sharp is not 'correctly added. Chambers Af^c/. Stage, 11. 
116, incorrectly puts the sum at £3 7^- 5/2^. 

so Ibid., p. 45. ^ , 

31 Presentation in the Temple, p. 19. 

32 Ibid., p. 24. 



100 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Pageant-Houses. Another thing that added 
to the annual expenses of the play-producing com- 
panies was the yearly charge for the storage of the 
pageant-wagons. Many of the guilds, of course, 
owned their own houses, known as pageant-houses, 
where they stored their pageant-cars. Others, 
however, rented space for their pageants. At 
York in 1503, for instance, the cooks were granted 
" sufficient and convenient roome for theyr pag- 
iaunt within the pagiaunt house of the baxters ",^^ 
and at Lincoln all the wagons were stored in " the 
late school-house " and a charge made " for ware- 
housing of 4d. for every pageant, * and Noy schippe 
I2d: " «* 

Often, however, each guild, or each union of two 
or more guilds, had its own pageant-house, which 
was built and maintained at the expense of the 
company. Our fullest accounts of a pageant-house 
are to be had from the records of the Coventry 
weavers, who m 1587 tore down their old house 
and built r new one on its site. The following 
records of " paymentes for bulding of the paygente 
house in the Myl lane " will give us some idea of 
what it was : 

Item in prymis, payd at takinge doune of the 
house and the tilles, for hieryng of a rope, 
and caryinge the leade to the store house, & 
for drynk to the worke men that same day . ijs xd 

S3 Davles, York Records, p. 240 n. 
34 Leach in Furnivall Miscellany, p. 224. Mr. Leach puts 
this date at "Nov. 12, 31 Henry VII." C I) 



THE PAGEANTS 101 

Item payd to carpteners for ther wages . iijli iiijs iiijd 
Item payd to the masones for ther wages . viijs iiijd 
Item payd to the tilers for tiling and daubing xvijs viijd 
Item payd for stone and for carying of stone . . xijs 

Item payd for sand and claye vs ijd 

Item payd for lyme and for heare, to make mortar 

ixs viijd 

Tiles Qs. 6d., timber 30 [25] s. 8d., spars and 
stoods IIS. 8d. 
Item payd for a hundred & halfe of bryckes . ijs ijd 
Item payd at the rearyng of the house and on the 

nyght befor xs vjd 

Summe is xjli xvijs xd.^^ 

To these 1587 entries may be added an earlier one, 
1 53 1, that of a payment " for mendyng of pe [old] 
pagent hov^se wyndo ". 

From these accounts we learn that the earlier 
house had a windov^, that the later one had a tile 
roof and probably a stone foundation, that it v^as 
possibly sealed inside, and that the total cost was 
in lys. lod. But since Sharp tells us (without 
giving his authority, however) that the new one 
was also " suitable for a dwelling ", it is not pos- 
sible to state just what or how many of these char- 
acteristics were to be found in a regular pageant- 
house. 

Joint Use of the Pageants. The carriage- 
houses, as stated above, were often the joint prop- 
erty of two or more guilds, as were the pageants 
stored in them. This joint ownership, of course, 

35 Weavers* Pageant of the Presentation in the Temple, 
p. 26. 



102 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

was for the purpose of lessening expenses, and in 
such cases the same wagon was used for more than 
one play in the same festival. For example, at 
Chester in 1532 we find the vintners and dyers, who 
played the Adoration of the Magi, the next to the 
last play on Monday, agreeing with the goldsmiths 
and masons, who produced the Slaughter of the 
Innocents, the first one on Tuesday, for both to use 
the same pageant-car, the vintners and dyers to pay 
a stated amount toward the cost of the wagon and 
a third of the expenses for repairs and carriage- 
house rent. 

Preliminary Preparations. It was from these 
pageant-houses that the wagons at the beginning 
of the festival season were " had f urthe " for " re- 
parellynge ", " for payntyng of the vane ", for 
" making the wheles ", for " dressynge with 
resshes ", for lubrication with " grey sope '', and for 
the general preliminary preparations, all of which 
must be completed by the evening before the fes- 
tival. And in order to get an early start the next 
morning the carriages were removed from their 
pageant-houses the evening before, and watchmen, 
usually the journeymen of the guilds, were sta- 
tioned and paid to protect them from vandals dur- 
ing the night. 

" Horsing " the Pageants. The cars were 
drawn sometimes by men, sometimes by horses. 
The Norwich grocers' pageant in 1565 was drawn 
by six horses decorated with " Horsse Clothes, 



THE PAGEANTS 103 

stayned, w* knopps & tassels ".^® The Coventry 
weavers paid their journeymen ^s. 2d. in 1555 '' for 
dryving the pagent ", and Chambers states that the 
cappers expected their journeymen to do the " hors- 
ing " of their pageant, a service which they do not 
always seems to have rendered, since Sharp quotes 
the company as paying i6d. one year " for four 
whit harnesse".^^ In 1584 the York bakers paid 
2s. "to Yjd. laborers for puttinge the padgion"; 
the Chester smiths had theirs drawn by ten in 1567 
and by nine in 1575 ; the Coventry drapers had ten 
in 1561 ; and the cappers in 1490, twelve. 

Promptness. The wagons were drawn in a 
regular stated order and absolute promptness was 
demanded. At York a schedule of the pageants 
had to be written by the town-clerk and officially 
delivered to the crafts yearly in the first or second 
week of Lent so that no excusable mistake might 
be made. And, in addition, the bailiffs and the 
councilmen assumed the government and general 
oversight over the pageants on play-day so that 
word might be ** broughte how euery place was 
neere done " and no time be given " to tarye, till y® 
last was played ". In 1423 " the Twelve Keepers " 
of Beverley were given their expenses for work 
" on Corpus Christi day governing all the pageants 
passing through the whole town ", and in 1459 one 
Thomas Law, alderman of butchers in the same 

36 Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 388. 
^'^ Coventry Mysteries, p. 49. 



104 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

town, was fined for coming late to the station at 
the North Gates. 

Number of the Plays. The number of 
pageants varied, of course, in proportion to the 
number of plays, from less than a half-dozen scenes 
at Worcester to as many as fifty-seven at York. 
This variation in the number of the cars and the 
pageant scenes furnishes a striking testimony to 
the elasticity of the plays, which could be divided 
from or merged into each other according to the 
changing conditions of social life and the varying 
wealth and prosperity of the guilds enjoying the 
feast. At Worcester in 1467 the town-council 
ordained " that v. pageunts be hadd amonge the 
craftes " ^® that year, an ordinance which would 
suggest that the number of scenes varied from year 
to year. At Beverley there were thirty-eight in 
1390 against thirty-six in 1520; thirty-two are ex- 
tant from Wakefield, and there probably were 
others; and Coventry probably had forty-five, or 
nine, according as the count is made ^^ (none of 
which, it is rather remarkable, presented any scenes 
from the Old Testament). 

Time Required. The length of time required 
for the plays varied from one day, the time at most 
of the towns, to three days at Chester. At York 
the whole cycle of from forty-eight to fifty-seven 
scenes was gone through within one day, though, in 
order to accomplish this, the actors had to be ready 

38 Smith, English Gilds, p. 372. 

39 Craig, Two Coventry Corpus CJiristi Plays, p. xv. 



THE PAGEANTS 105 

for beginning *' at the my dhow re betwix iiij^^ and 
v^^ of the cloke in the mornynge ". At Coventry, 
too, the whole series was meant for completion in 
one day ; but this was not always accomplished, for 
in 1457 we learn that on " Corporis Christi yeven 
at nyght . . . came the quene [Margaret] from 
Kelyngworth to Co^entre . . . to se the play there 
on the morowe ; and she sygh then alle the Pagentes 
pleyde save Domes-day, which myght not be pleyde 
for lak of day ".*^ In such cases it appears that 
the remaining scenes were given the following 
day; for in 1544 among the entries of the Coventry 
cappers, whose scene was third from the last, we 
find Sd. " payd for drynk in pe pageant for pe 
plears for botbe days ", from which one might sur- 
mise that the whole series was not completed the 
first day, as the program called for, and that the 
last three acts were left for the second. At other 
places, however, the pageants were purposely dis- 
tributed over several days; as, for example, at 
Chester, where they " were played vpon monday, 
tuseday, and wenseday in witson weeke ". 

ffor three dayes together, begynnlnge one mondaye, 
see these pagentes played to the beste of theire skill, 
wher to supply all wantes, shalbe noe wantes of good will.^^ 

Summary. In conclusion, then, it may be 
said of the pageant-cars on which the Corpus 
Christi plays were presented that they were big, 
ponderous wagons employing one or two stages. 

*o Harris, Coventry Leet Book, p. 300. 
*i Deimling, Chester Plays, i. p. 3. 



106 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

When the plays were simple in scene, only one 
stage was used. In such cases a lower room, pro- 
tected by curtains, was sometimes fitted up under 
the stage for a dressing-room. When the plays de- 
manded the representation of heaven and earth, or 
of heaven and paradise, double stages, one above 
the other, were used, the upper representing 
heaven, the lower earth or paradise. On the 
stages were raised platforms, which were made to 
represent different towns and places. Hell was a 
favorite subject in the religious drama and was 
represented by a dragon's head with gaping mouth 
and long teeth. 

For the representation of the plays the pageant- 
cars were gaudily decorated. These wagons were 
a great expense upon the craftsmen, as was the cost 
of the production of their plays. An additional 
expense was tlie annual storage charge for the 
wagons, which were stored in regular pageant- 
houses. Often two companies owned a pageant- 
house or a pageant-wagon jointly. In such cases 
the same car was frequently used for the repre- 
sentation of two or more plays in the same cycle. 
The number of these scenes in a cycle, and hence 
the number of pageant-wagons required, varied 
greatly, from five scenes at Worcester to fifty- 
seven at York. And, finally, the time required for 
the representation of these pageants varied from 
one day at most of the towns to as many as three 
at Chester. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 

Introductory. In the preceding chapters of 
this volume our study has been devoted largely to 
the purely mechanical features of the pageants, 
though some attention was given in chapter III to 
the Corpus Christi procession as a determining 
factor in grouping the Old and New Testament 
plays into cycles. It now remains for us to con- 
sider the relations between these mechanical fea- 
tures and the plays themselves, together with some 
of the principles of staging that resulted from 
the conditions under which the cycles developed 
and continued to be produced. 

Incongruities in the Plays. The conditions 
under which the plays developed resulted in the 
presence in the complete cycles of various contra- 
dictions and inconsistencies. Some of these are 
very striking, the most notable, perhaps, being the 
large number of incongruities in the plays, incon- 
gruities which any dramatist ought to have been 
able to detect and remove. These incongruous ele- 

107 



108 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

ments comprise inconsistencies within single 
scenes; inconsistencies and contradictions between 
scenes in more or less close proximity to each 
other ; great inequality in the treatment, tone, style, 
and metre of the different plays of the same cycle ; 
the narration of incidents in one play which have 
just been acted a few scenes back; and various 
other irregularities. 

Some of these incongruities may well have 
existed in the cycles as originally composed; for it 
is very probable that the original cycles were pro- 
duced by collaboration. And unless such col- 
laboration was planned and executed with the ut- 
most care, many such incongruities would almost 
inevitably occur. But we know both from the 
records and from the kinds of inequalities which 
we find in the plays, that the scenes were being con- 
tinually revised. And hence we are able to find 
what seems to have been one of the principal 
causes of the inconsistencies; for in the revisions 
little or no care seems to have been taken to elim- 
inate or to prevent contradictions and irregular- 
ities. 

Development of Nev7 Scenes. One of the chief 
causes of these revisions and of the consequent 
incongruities was the normal expansion of the 
cycles, which came as a result of the natural 
increase in the number of play-producing com- 
panies. Whenever a new scene was needed, it 
was obtained either by dividing an original play, 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 109 

by the development into a scene of what had 
formerly been an incident only, or by the creation 
of a new play from biblical, apochryphal, or 
legendary sources. Thus we find the York Com- 
ing of the Three Kings a divisible play, one which 
might be given as two separate scenes when the 
masons and goldsmiths were both playing, or as a 
single scene when the former were not able to 
support a pageant. Likewise the Appearance of 
Our Lady to Thomas in the same cycle seems to 
be one of those that was developed from what was 
earlier only an incident in an apochryphal biblical 
story. And in the Coventry cycle, though the play- 
book has not come down to us, *' the matter of the 
Castell of Emaus " seems to have been an incident 
added to the cappers' play in 1540.^ 

Merging of Old Scenes. The cycles were not 
always growing, however, and the number of play- 
producing guilds was not always on the increase. 
On the contrary, the make-up of the list of com- 
panies was continually changing, one, or sometimes 
more, dropping out of the lists and making it nec- 
essary to telescope two or more scenes into one. 
Illustrations of the results of this process are to be 
found in the twentieth play of the Wakefield cycle, 
which represents the conspiracy, the Last Supper, 

1 Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, p. 94. 
Since this scene was one of the features of the early 
liturgical drama, however, it may be possible that the 
record implies only the composition of a new version of 
the old scene. 



110 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

and the arrest of Christ; and in the sixth of the 
Chester series, presenting the annunciation, the 
visit of Mary to EHzabeth, and the nativity. The 
latter is an excellent example of an unskilful merg- 
ing of at least two, or possibly three, plays. 

All this *' telescoping " and dividing of the plays 
and the expansion of minor incidents into new- 
scenes, was the cause of numerous incongruities, 
inequalities, and inconsistencies in the stage repre- 
sentation of the plays, all of which will be taken up 
for discussion in their proper place in the succeed- 
ing chapters. In the same place, too, will be con- 
sidered some of the other similar characteristics of 
the plays which were the result, not of their 
method of development, but of the circumstances 
under which they were produced. For the pres- 
ent, it is sufficient merely to call attention to these 
traits and to point out that they were a direct re- 
sult of the open-air stages on which it was neces- 
sary to present the plays. Such are the use of 
sedes in the scenes, the reliance of the dramatists 
on the imagination of the hearers, the lack of per- 
spective in staging, the symbolic treatment of 
space, time, and numbers, etc. 

Influence of the Liturgical Sources. Mean- 
while, at the same time that we are considering the 
various influences exercised upon the Corpus 
Christi stage, it may be well to examine one of the 
pre-cyclic influences, the liturgical drama ; although 
the present writer is much opposed to the modern 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 111 

tendency toward tracing every form, device, and 
method of literature back to some preceding form, 
device, or method — foreign preferred, native ac- 
cepted. In other words — to be more specific, and 
to draw an illustration from the subject under con- 
sideration, — it seems that criticism is entirely and 
undoubtedly within the limits of safety in tracing 
the religious drama and many of its customs back 
to the early church ; but when the attempt is made 
to derive all the stagecraft and the devices of the 
Corpus Christi plays, even the shape and arrange- 
ment of the stages and the sedes, from a direct and 
precise imitation of the church stage, then the de- 
velopmental theory has been wholly misapplied. It 
is not fair to the managers and directors of the 
processional pageants of the fourteenth, fifteenth, 
and sixteenth centuries ; it attributes to them flabby 
brains and minds without the power of initiative. 
In their plays, for instance, they did not put heaven 
on the upper stage and hell below merely because 
the liturgical drama had been staged in the church 
with heaven in the rood-loft and hell in the crypt, 
but because the almost universal idea was that 
these two places had definite geographical posi- 
tions, heaven above us and hell below us. And 
the managers of the pageants did not build their 
stages on wheels and put their sedes or loca 
thereon to resemble the plans as used in the church, 
but for the better advantage of the spectators, that 
all might be able to see and hear. 



112 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Changes. On the contrary, however, it would 
not be at all just to say that the players and man- 
agers in the Corpus Christi days were consciously 
and purposely making their plans different from 
those of the church. The liturgical drama had 
been an interesting, spiritual, and stimulating 
power for good, and it was undoubtedly originally 
their intention merely to reproduce it in the open, 
with whatever modifications might be necessary, as 
a continued influence for good upon all persons 
viewing the performances. And this idea seems 
to have been carried out, but with so many and 
such varied modifications that, so far as the present 
writer has been able to perceive, the only practice 
which was not altered — an important one by the 
way — was that of using a separate sedes, locus, or 
domus for each important scene or character. 

"Sedes" and " Plateae ". The terms, sedes, 
loca, or domus, were used indiscriminately to 
mean either the seats of the actors where they 
remained when not participating in the play, or 
places to which on some occasions the action of 
the scene was transferred. These sedes, loca, or 
domus, so far as we can learn, were always defi- 
nitely localized by means of appropriate decora- 
tions and properties and were in distinct contrast 
to the platea, which was the space in between the 
sedes and not definitely localized. M. Petit de 
Julleville has described at some length the sys- 
tem of staging employed for the representation of 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 113 

the medieval French plays, and his description 
may well be applied here: — 

Le moyen age avait congu tout differemment la multipli- 
cite des lieux dans la representation dramatique. Pour 
jouer un mystere, on disposait d'avance, ensemble, a la 
fois, sur une scene unique, les lieux divers, si nombreux 
qu'ils fussent, ou Taction devait successivement se passer, 
mais au cours d'une meme journee la scene etait 
immuable et devait renfermer la representation, ou I'indi- 
cation tout au moins, des lieux, souvent tort nombreux, 
ou se passait Taction dans cette journee. En un mot, la 
scene etait permanente, a la fois unique et multiple, le 
decor ne changeait jamais; c'est Taction qui voyageait dans 
Tenceinte de cette vaste scene et se transportait successive- 
ment aux divers endroits representes : allait de Rome a 
Constantinople, de Jerusalem en Espagne, traversait la 
mer ou les deserts, et feignait un long voyage entre deux 
pays figures sur la scene a dix pieds Tun de Tautre. Les 
enfants dans leurs jeux ont des fictions analogues; mais 
toutefois ce systeme theatral, qui nous parait pueril, a 
suffi a Shakespeare.2 

As M. Petit de Julleville suggests, there is a 
naive resemblance between these domus on the 
primitive stage and the '' homes " of the make-be- 
lieve world in the children's nursery, where each 
little would-be woman has her house in a corner 
of the room and receives her friends when they 
come to visit her. Shakspere on two occasions 
employed the same system of staging, as M. Petit 
de Julleville intimates, and many striking resem- 
blances are to be found between the medieval stage 
and our theatre of to-day. We have miniature 
houses on our stages, imitative forests, pretended 

2 Histoire de la Langue et de la Litterature francaise, ii. 
415-16. 



114 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

city streets, etc., which we are willing, for the sake 
of the enjoyment, to make ourselves feel are real. 
Our stage houses and our stage streets, for in- 
stance, we know are unreal, yet we allow an actor 
to enter the street from one of the houses, meet a 
friend perhaps at his doorway, and go up and sit 
on the verandah of a neighbor's house. Or per- 
haps the friends at another time meet at no special 
place, a field, a forest, or maybe in front of a bare, 
front drop-curtain — in other words, just some- 
where. 

Method of Staging. In the same way the 
actors on the Corpus Christi stage were attempting 
to reproduce a similar imaginary, imitative, and 
symbolical world. Nor was it an altogether crude 
and fanciful one. They had their seats, their 
homes, which by a temporary suspense of realism 
both they and their audience were able to convert 
into real ones. If they needed a castle in their 
little world, they built a miniature imitation at one 
side of the stage with fanes and battlements on the 
top, and the lord of the castle sat there with his 
soldiers and subjects around him. If they wanted 
a temple, they said " let's play like " this shelter or 
canopy is a temple, and Annas and Caiaphas shall 
be here. Or if Herod's palace was to be presented, 
they set a throne at his sedes, and any one who 
wanted to speak to the king must come to that 
specific place to see him. And when the action 
was such as might happen anywhere, the players 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 115 

walked away from their places into the open 
platea, the unlocated part of the stage, and there 
the conversation was carried on. 

Wakefield " Shepherds' Play, II." Thus in the 
Wakefield Second Shepherds' Play the action be- 
gins on the open platea, which is not a definitely 
localized place, but any spot where shepherds guard 
their sheep. One by one the herdsmen enter, Mak 
coming last, and all lie down and apparently go to 
sleep. Mak's sleep is not so deep as he pretends, 
however, and while the others are resting, he jumps 
up, steals a sheep, and carries it to his house, a de- 
finitely localized place, where he knocks and calls 
to his wife: 

"how, gyll, art thou In? gett vs som lyght". 

To which Gyll replies: 

" Who makys sich dyn this tyme of the nyght? 
I am sett for to spyn ", etc. — 11. 296-98. 

She lets him in and takes the sheep, however, and 
he returns to the sleeping shepherds in time to 
wake up with them. Their sheep is missed, of 
course; Mak's house is searched; and the sheep is 
found in the cradle. The shepherds have just 
finished "blanketing" Mak when the Gloria in 
Excelsis is begun at the other end of the stage, at 
Bethlehem, another definitely localized sedes, and 
the shepherds all journey there to worship the new- 
born King. 



116 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

" Purification of Mary ". Or, if the scene be the 
Purification of Mary on a stage at Chester, we find 
the pageant-car with two floors; the upper one is 
heaven, the lower one Bethlehem and Jerusalem. 
At the extreme right and on a raised part of the 
lower stage is an altar-like representation of the in- 
terior of the temple at Jerusalem. On the extreme 
left is Joseph's home in Bethlehem ; and two apple- 
trees are clamped to the floor of the pageant to 
represent the country between Bethlehem and 
Jerusalem.^ The scene opens with Simeon in the 
temple reading the prophecy of Isaiah about the 
coming of the Christ. He reads that a virgin shall 
bear a son. But he objects to the word " virgin "; 
so he erases it and writes " A good woman " in- 
stead. Anna and he join in conversation at this 
point; and an angel descends from Heaven, the 
floor above, and writes the original word " virgin ". 
Again Simeon erases the objectionable word, and 
again the angel descends and restores the original 
reading; but this time the priest sees the angel, 
who tells him that he shall not die before he has 
seen the Christ. Simeon blesses God for his 
mercies, then goes outside the temple, de alio loco 
procull a templo, and seats himself in expectation 
of the coming of Christ. At this point Joseph and 
Mary in their house in Bethlehem at the other end 
of the stage begin talking and decide to go up to 

3 Cf. Morris, Chester during the Planfagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 305. This will be discussed more fully later, 
pp. 178-79. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 117 

the temple at Jerusalem for her purification. They 
start out, pass by the two apple-trees representing 
the country between the two cities, and in a half- 
minute's time have gone the whole distance. 
Simeon receives the Christ in his arms and ac- 
knowledges him as his Lord. Anna does the same. 
But while the group are conversing, the child 
crawls down and goes into the temple. Joseph and 
Mary now start on their way home and, a little 
later, miss him; and while they are seeking him 
the child is disputing with the doctors in the temple, 
where they finally return and find him. 

Interest in the Action. There is no confusion in 
such a stage-system as this. Nor in a certain sense 
can there be said to be any great amount of crudity. 
According to our ideas of stage-craft to-day such 
scenes would seem to indicate on the part of the 
dramatists of the time a lack of knowledge of the 
fitness, proportion, and possibilities of the stages 
which they were using; but, as the audience of 
that day saw it, there was no crudity at all. Their 
interest was centered almost wholly in the action, 
almost none at all in the setting, or background. 
It mattered not to them whether Christ was in a 
real stable, or a real manger, or whether the setting 
was one from Bethlehem or London; what they 
cared for were the antics of the rustic shepherds, 
the splendid robes of the three kings, the glorious 
gifts which these kings presented, and the adora- 
tion shown the Christ. It was the action of the 



118 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

play, the movement of the characters in the scenes, 
not the backgrounds to these scenes, to which the 
audiences devoted their attention; and so long as 
the pageants and the sedes were decorated " costely 
and fyne ", their dramatic and esthetic taste was 
sufficiently satisfied. 

The Pageant-Car as a " Sedes ". The relation of 
these pageant-cars to each other, however, and the 
relation of the sedes to the pageant-cars has been 
the cause of much discussion about Corpus Christi 
staging. For example, it has been held by many 
scholars that, though the stationary plays — such 
as the so-called Ludus Coventrice, the Digby, or 
the Cornish plays — used the system of simulta- 
neous scenery, of exposing two or more separate 
scenes on the same stage at the same time, yet the 
processional plays, such as those at Beverley, 
Chester, and York, were simple in scene, — in other 
words, that the pageant- wagons in the latter plays 
never represented more than one place at a time, 
and that, if additional sedes were needed, they were 
supplied by extra stages in the streets. Or, to put 
it another way, it has been maintained that the 
pageant-wagon in the processional play was not re- 
garded as a stage at all, but as a single sedes, or 
locus, representing a fixed locality, and that the 
ground about the wagon was felt to be the stage. 

The purpose of this chapter is to show that the 
pageant-wagon was the stage, that the separate 
sedes were placed on this stage, and that none of 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 119 

our extant processional plays demand a larger 
stage than may be met with on the pageant-wagon. 
Collier's Account. The apparent originator of 
this thus-far uncontradicted theory of Corpus 
Christi staging was J. Payne Collier, whose state- 
ment of his belief was as follows : 

They [the plays] were acted on temporary erections of 
timber, indifferently called scaffolds, stages and pageants; 
and there is no doubt that in some instances they were 
placed upon wheels, in order that they might be removed 
to various quarters of large towns or cities, and the plays 
exhibited in succession. The testimony of Archdeacon 
Rogers, who wrote his account of Chester prior to the 
death of Elizabeth, seems decisive upon this point, as far 
as the performances there are concerned. . . . The 
same authority would lead to the conclusion, that only one 
scaffold, stage, or pageant, was present at the same time 
in the same place, and doubtless such was the fact, ac- 
cording to the arrangement of the plays to which Arch- 
deacon Rogers refers. It is indisputable, however, that 
the Chester Miracle-plays, as they exist in the British 
Museum, could not have been so represehted. Some of 
the pieces require the employment of two, and even of 
three scaffolds, independent of other contrivances: the 
street also must have been used, as several of the char- 
acters enter and go out on horseback.* 

Matthews's Account. This idea was adopted 
by Mr. Brander Matthews and crystallized as 
follows : — 

Thus we see that in France the stations used inside the 
church were set up side by side on the open-air stage out- 

* History of English Dramatic Poetry, ii. 77-9. 



120 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

side of the church, where they were known as mansions. 
In England the stations were separated and each was 
shown by itself, being called a "pageant". Sometimes 
these were stationary, and sometimes they were ambula- 
tory. . . . For certain of the episodes, such as the 
Trial of Christ, for example, two floats were required, 
and the performers passed from one to the other as the 
incidents of the narrative might require.^ 

Chambers's Account. Mr. E. K. Chambers, in 
turn, accepted the same idea: — 

It [the stage on the pageant-wagon] is simply the raised 
locus, sedes, or domus of the stationary play put upon 
wheels. Just as the action of the stationary play took 
place partly on the various sedes, partly in the platea, so 
Coventry actors come and go to and from the pageant in 
the street. * Here Erode ragis in the pagond & in the 
strete also', says a stage direction. It should be observed 
that the plays at Coventry were exceptionally long, and 
that scaffolds seem to have been attached to the pageant 
proper in order to get sufficient space.^ 

Albright's Summary. And, finally, Mr. V. E. 
Albright has accepted and summarized the com- 
bined theory of the preceding writers as follows : 

There are, however, certain plays in the cycles which 
require two or three distinct locations with characters 
travelling from one location to another. We can con- 
ceive of a very spacious wagon with two or three raised 
platforms on it, and the characters making a circle out in 
the street when they are supposed to pass from one place 
to another; or we can conceive of certain actors taking 

^Modern Philology, i. 87-8. 
^ Mediaeval Stage, ii. 138. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 121 

their stand in the street as though they were on raised 
platforms, and passing from these spots to and from the 
pageant wagon as the action requires. But there is some 
evidence of another and a far more reasonable way. The 
quotation from Rogers ends with the sentence, " And also 
scafolds and stages [were] made in the streetes in those 
places where they determined to play theire pagiantes". 
Mr. Sharp, while searching " the ancient Books and Docu- 
ments belonging to the Corporation [of Coventry], and 
the remaining Account Books and other writings of the 
Trading Companies", was constantly meeting with items 
for extra scaffolds on wheels, and eventually came to the 
following conclusion: "Various charges in the Pageant 
Accounts demonstrate that at Coventry, as at Chester, it 
was customary to have scaffolds or stages for the accom- 
modation of the spectators : a few instances will suffice : — 
making of a new post to the scaffold;— a tryndyll and a 
theal to ditto; — two new scaffold wheels 6s. 8d.;— iron 
pins and colters to the scaffold wheels; — boards about the 
scaffold ;— three boards and a ledge for the scaffold;— 
clamps and iron works; — setting in of the Pageant and 
scaffolds ;— driving the Pageant and scaffolds. From 
these items it is evident that the * scaffolds ' were placed 
apon wheels, and moved with the Pageant, to which it 
probably was attached, as the usual charges are for * hav- 
ing out of the Pageant, setting in the scaffolds: and set- 
ting in of the Pageant and scaffolds' to the Pageant- 
house after the performance was over". . . . 

A more useful and necessary place for these incon- 
spicuous scaffolds, inconspicuous both in the processions 
and in the accounts of the guilds, would be in the staging- 
apparatus. One or two of these "stages" could accom- 
pany the pageant that was playing a double- or treble- 
scene play, and could be used in the performance in the 
same way as the scaffolds around the castle in The Castle 
of Perseverance. In this way a difficulty would be re- 



122 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

moved in the staging of some of the more complex plays 
in the processional cycles. . . . 

My idea, therefore, is that the pageant wagons sufficed 
in some of the plays in the processional cycles, while in 
others, one or two plain scaffolds with few or no proper- 
ties accompanied each pageant carriage. In certain cities, 
as at Coventry, these scaffolds were placed on wheels and 
drawn along with the pageants that needed them; in 
others, as at Chester, they were "made in the streetes in 
those places where they determined to play theire 
pagiantes". In both cases they were arranged at a dis- 
tance of fifty to seventy-five feet from the main carriage. 
The spectacular scene took place on the pageant wagon, 
and the unscenic one or two on the scaffold or scaffolds 
near by; and the characters passed freely from one to the 
other, doing part of the acting on the plateae, just as in 
the stationary play.'" 

In other words, if the present writer has cor- 
rectly interpreted the four authors quoted, they 
regard the pageant-wagon of the processional play 
as equivalent to a single sedes, or to the platea, in 
the church or on the stationary stage, rather than 
to the stage itself. A pageant-wagon, for instance, 
that corresponded to a sedes would be used for 
what Mr. Albright terms a " spectacular ", or 
propertied, scene, and one that corresponded to a 
platea would be used for unpropertied and un- 
located scenes. The same stage would always 
represent one and the same fixed locality and could 
never be used at the same time for two distinct and 
definitely located places; and if any play required 

7 Shaksperian Stage, pp. 25-7. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 123 

two or more propertied sedes, then extra pageants 
or extra scaffolds were procured to supply the need 
for keeping the locations separate. Oddly enough 
there is no evidence that the processional plays 
were ever so staged. 

Basis of the Theory. The only apparently 
genuine evidence substantiating this view consists 
of the two passages cited by Mr. Albright from 
Sharp and the Rogers Breviary of Chester, But, 
as a matter of fact, the testimony which these pas- 
sages have been supposed to contain can not be found 
when the passages are subjected to a critical exam- 
ination. Sharp's account, to be sure, is just as 
Mr. Albright has given it, but, as Professor Manly 
has pointed out to the present writer, Mr. Albright 
has failed to notice that Sharp does not distinguish 
between the earlier Coventry pageants and the new 
play of the Destruction of Jerusalem in 1584, or 
that, without exception, every reference to a scaf- 
fold in the accounts as given by Sharp in his Cov- 
entry Mysteries occurs after 1580, the last year 
in which the ancient Corpus Christi pageants 
were presented. There are items before 1581, 
plenty of them, "for drynkynge at the pagent 
in havinge forthe ", for "the reparellynge of 
the pagantte and the expences of havyng it in 
and furthe ", for bringing the pageant " in to gos- 
f ord-stret ", " for the horssyng of the padgeant ", 
" for swepyng the pagent & dressyng ", for " pe 
havynge out & settynge in of the pageand ", and for 



124 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

numerous other expenses of a similar nature. But 
in not a single case is there any mention of an 
additional scaffold before 1584, when the Destruc- 
tion of Jerusalem was given. As soon as that year 
is reached, however, we find immediately payments 
made " to Cookeson for makynge of a whele to the 
skaffolde ", *' for the settinge & drivinge off the 
pagyn & skaffoldes ", " for mendynge off the skaf- 
folds ", and for other items of the same kind. 

" Destruction of Jerusalem ". On the other hand 
an examination of the accounts for the Destruction 
of Jerusalem discloses the fact that a huge stage 
must have been needed, a much larger one than 
could be carried through the streets on wheels. 
Hence the use of the scaffolds, — to lengthen or 
widen the old stage and to allow room for more 
sedes on the same platform. For instance, in the 
expense accounts for the Destruction of Jerusalem 
we find that the smiths' musicians accompanied 
their wagon and played " on theyre instruments in 
the Pagent ". Of these musicians there were a 
trumpeter, a flute-player, " ij drumme players ", 
and a chorus of we know not how many voices. 
In addition, there were twelve characters, besides 
the soldiers, — six of the actors, however, playing 
double parts. Some of the players were arrayed 
in Irish mantles; there was a storm and thunder; 
and a temple, probably Solomon's, was somewhere 
on the stage. The cappers, too, had a temple, 
twelve soldiers in red coats, six musicians besides 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 125 

a trumpeter, and probably other things in propor- 
tion. So one may justly say that the Destruction 
of Jerusalem was a play with far more " business " 
than the simple Corpus Christi pageants and must 
consequently have necessitated far more playing 
space. And it seems fair to conclude that the 
extra scaffolds, of which numerous mentions are 
found in 1584 and later, but not before, must have 
been to afford this extra space. 

Rogers's Statement. Again: Mr. Albright 
has cited the supposed statement of Archdeacon 
Rogers of Chester that "scafoldes and stages 
[were] made in the streetes in those places where 
they determined to playe theire pagiantes ". 
Ordish, too, called attention to the same statement 
^n his Early London Theatres^ some years ago. 
But here" again a careful examination of the evi- 
dence will show not only that its authenticity is 
questionable, but that probability is overwhelmingly 
against its evidence being accepted as reliable for 
matters of detail connected with the staging of the 
Corpus Christi plays. And there are three definite 
reasons why it cannot be entirely relied upon : (i) 
we cannot be certain whether Robert Rogers or his 
son wrote the material about " ye whitson playes " ; 
(2) we cannot be sure that either father or son ever 
saw a Corpus Christi play presented ; and (3) if the 
father was writing about the cycles as he saw them, 
the probability is that he was describing them as 

8 p. 10. 



/ 



126 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

he last saw them, which was the last time they 
were presented at Chester, 1574, when they were 
given, not regularly, but all in " on part of the 
Citty ". 

(i) The authority of the Rogers's Breviary 
cannot be trusted for minute details with regard to 
the staging of the Whitson plays, because we can 
not tell what part was the work of the Archdeacon 
and what of his son. For example, Harl. MS 1948 
tells us that the collections in the " breauarye " of 
Chester were " collected by the Reuerend : mr Rob- 
ert Rogers, Batchlor in Diuinitye, Archdeacon of 
Chester, and Prebunde in the Cathedrall Church 
of Chester " and were written " per Dauid 
Rogers: 1609: July: 3". Now the Archdeacon 
died in 1595, and it is noteworthy that the Breviary, 
written by his son in 1609, fourteen years after 
his father's death, certainly contains matter sub- 
sequent to 1595. Hence one cannot say what or 
how much of the matter in the MSS was " col- 
lected " by the father. Hence, too, it is possible 
that the matter concerning the pageants may not 
have been collected by the father, but that it may 
have been written by the son from mere traditions 
of old Corpus Christi days. And hence, finally, 
we certainly cannot rely entirely on the material 
about the Whitson plays for matters of minute de- 
tail, such as the exact use of the stages on the 
Corpus Christi stage. 

(2) We cannot be sure that either the father or 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 127 

the son ever saw a Corpus Christi play presented. 
For example, their Breviary says of the plays in 
1574, the last year they were given: — 

These 7 pagiantes weare played vpon ye third daye, 
beinge wensedaye; & these whitson playes weare played 
in Chester anno domini : 1574: Sr lohn Sauage, knight, 
beinge Mayor of Chester, which was the laste tyme they 
weare played. And we haue all cause to power out our 
prayeres before God, that neither we nor oure posterities 
after us, maye neuer see ye like abomination of desolation, 
with such a Clowde of Ignorance to defyle with so highe 
a hand ye sacred scriptures of God: But of ye mercye 
of oure God for ye tyme of oure Ignorance he regardes it 
not: and thus much in briefe of ye whitson playes.^ 

Here then we find the writer of this document 
violently and religiously opposed to the pageants; 
and, having such scruples, it is more than doubtful 
whether he could ever have allowed himself to be 
present at an actual presentation of any of the 
plays. If it were the Archdeacon writing, he prob- 
ably had seen the scaffolds in the streets in 1574, 
whether for spectators, musicians, or what, he did 
not know, — -but it is very probable that he had not 
been at the plays ; and to him the platforms in the 
streets were both " scafoldes and stages ", though 
their exact use he did not know. 

(3) If Archdeacon Rogers was the writer, it 
would seem probable that he must have had in 
mind the last presentation of the Corpus Christi 

^ Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, pp. xxii-iii. 



128 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

plays at Chester in 1574; for in that year, we learn 
from Randle Holme's collections, '' The whitson 
playes [were] played in pageantes in the Cittye: at 
midsomer, to the great dislike of many, because the 
playe was in on part of the Citty ".^° And if the 
pageants were given in one place in the city, being, 
moreover, a revival after a lapse of three years and 
on that account probably presented with greater 
eclat than ever before, it is not impossible that 
extra scaffolds and stages were really built in the 
streets for the spectators, the musicians, etc., and 
hence that Rogers in referring to the pageants was 
thinking of them on this one occasion of twenty 
or twenty-five years before and writing of them as 
they had appeared in all the splendor of prepara- 
tion for what had proved to be their final perform- 
ance. 

To state the case quite fairly, then : it seems that 
any evidence drawn from' the Rogers document, 
even if there were no other grounds to the contrary 
— as there are, — is entirely too flimsy to be the basis 
of a whole theory on Corpus Christi staging. 
Sharp's account at Coventry has been shown to 
apply only to a special non-Corpus Christi play, 
the Destruction of Jerusalem, and the Rogers 
Breviary, if written by the elder man, would seem 
to refer, not only to pageants which the writer of 
the document had probably not seen, but to the ir- 
regular revived pageants of a particular year, 1574, 

^® Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, p. xxvi n. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 129 

when all the scenes, after an interval of three years, 
during which no plays had been produced, were 
presented " in on part of the Citty ". 

This evidence seems all the more untrustworthy, 
too, when we come to consider that in all the exist- 
ing records and accounts of the plays, records and 
accounts which extend over two hundred years of 
time, no other mention whatever, so far as the 
present writer has been able to discover, is to be 
found of extra stages and scaffolds. And it seems 
both inconceivable that a thory of any con- 
sequence could have been built on so slight a basis 
and, hence, fortunate that a large amount of other 
evidence is at hand to prove conclusively that extra 
stages were not needed, that more than one located 
scene was to be found on a single stage, and, 
therefore, that the processional wagon was re- 
garded as the stage itself rather than as a simple 
sedes. 

The Wakefield Plays. In discussing this 
phase of the staging of the Corpus Christi plays ^ 
references will be made freely to those of the j 
Wakefield cycle, even though they seem, from the | 
MS that has come down to us, undoubtedly to have 
been produced on stationary platforms. For 
example, in the Killing of Abel the Garcio says: 
Now old and yong, or that ye weynd. 

The same blissyng withoutten end, 

All sam then shall ye haue.^^ — 11. 443-5. 

11 Cf. Ebert, Die englischen Mysterien, p. 66 n. 



130 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

From this speech of Cain's servant it seems clear 
that the plays of the Towneley cycle, like those of 
the Digby Conversion of St. Paul, were produced 
on a fixed stage and that the audience moved from 
one scaffold to another as the scenes succeeded each 
other. 

On the other hand, however, it seems fair to 
refer to the plays of the Towneley cycle for 
methods of presentation because they were pro- 
duced by the craftsmen of Wakefield just as in 
other towns, because several of the scenes have 
been shown by Miss Smith and Mr. Pollard to be 
practically identical with the corresponding scenes 
in the York cycle, and because in other points of 
technique, conventions, etc., these plays show that 
they are of the regular Corpus Christi type. There- 
fore it may be fairly assumed that the Wakefield 
plays developed regularly, just as the other Corpus 
Christi cycles did, but that they have gone one step 
in advance of the other plays and have become 
stationary in order to accommodate themselves to 
the necessities of the annual Wakefield fair.^^ 
Hence we may be entirely justified in referring to 
the Wakefield plays for evidence as to methods of 
presentation. 

Stationary and Processional Stages. Like- 
wise evidence as to methods of presentation will 
be adduced from the Norwich pageants and other 
plays given on movable stages, whether those stages 

12 Cf. Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 416. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 131 

during the action were placed on a street corner, 
or in the market-place, or in a play-field, " play- 
stool ", or any definite playing-place where the 
crowds of people might be shut off and money 
collected for entrance. This distinction is to be 
made, because some, like Mr. Osborn Water- 
house,^^ have been confused through failure to dis- 
tinguish between the two. For example, Mr. 
Waterhouse says of the Norwich grocers' pag- 
eant-wagon : " The pageant itself was ' a Howse 
of Waynskott, paynted and buylded on a 
Carte, with fowre whelys', which latter, on stub- 
born occasions, were lubricated with soap ".^* 
And yet he says of the playing-place : " In 1489, 
a Corpus Christi procession was held, and the 
pageants were taken in procession ad capell in 
Campis Norwici; but we are not definitely in- 
formed whether the plays were actually performed 
at that time and at that place: it is however very 
probable. . . . The only reference to a place of 
performance known to us is the somewhat vague 
one mentioned above in connection with the proces- 
sion, and, so far as we know, there is no authority 
for believing that the plays at Norwich went in 
circuit and were played at ^ stations ' in different 
parts of the town. Probability is in favour of a 
stationary place of performance, as was the case 
with the Coventry plays, the Cornish plays, and the 

13 Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, pp. xxxi-xxxii. 
^^Ibid., p. xxxii. Cf. the description in this volume, p. 
87. 



132 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

plays at Reading, Shrewsbury and Edinburgh ".^'* 
Now Mr. Waterhouse's trouble comes from a 
failure to recognize clearly the difference between 
a processional stage and a stationary one; for, 
while the underlying principle of the two kinds of 
staging was the same, the viewpoint and the stages 
themselves were very different. He failed to 
notice, however, that if a pageant-car were used 
and the play given at a definite station on a street 
corner, the action must necessarily be the same 
as if the wagon were taken to a play-field and 
the scene presented from the same stage there. 
The only difference was that the crowd could be 
shut off and admission prices charged in the one 
case, whereas in the other, on the street corner, this 
could not be done. 

Simultaneous Scenery. In the following pages 
of this chapter, then, the plan will be to cite in 
detail evidence from the plays of Wakefield, Nor- 
wich, Coventry, and other cycles of processional 
plays and to show that the presentation of these 
plays cannot be explained on any other principle 
than that of simultaneous scenery, with the 
pageant-car as a stage rather than as a sedes. The 
term '* simultaneous scenery ", too, will be used to 
mean the presence on the pageant-stage of two 
distinct and separately located scenes, both of 
which are visible and present to the audience at 
the same time. And by " multiple representation " 

^^ Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, pp. xxxi-xxxii. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 133 

will be meant the simultaneous presence on the 
stage of actors in simultaneously decorated scenes 
that are supposed to be more or less distant from 
each other. 

Pageant Large Enough. First of all, it must 
be recognized that the regular pageant stages, with 
the help of the street in some exceptional cases, 
were large enough to present any of the plays that 
have come down to us. We have heard always 
that the pageant-cars were big and spacious, and 
Archdeacon Rogers's, or his son's, statement that 
the carriages '' stoode vpon 6 wheeles " would in- 
dicate that they must have been very large, so large 
that an extra pair of wheels was needed to support 
the weight of the wagon in the center. To this 
may be added the evidence, slight though it be, of 
the " parcel of land in Mill Lane ", Coventry, 
" 30j^ feet wide and 70^ long ", on which the 
weavers' pageant-house was erected. Such evi- 
dence, it is true, can be regarded only as negative, 
but it is worth noting that a space of ground of 
this size would offer ample room for a pageant- 
wagon large enough to stage any of the cyclic 
plays. 

" Sedes " on the Stages. In the second place, at- 
tention should be called to the fact that we have 
positive evidence of sedes on the Corpus Christi 
stages. Sharp prints the following record of 
boards bought for the angels' sedes (" pulpits " 
they are called here) in the Coventry drapers' play 
of Doomsday: 



134 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

1565. — payd for iiij yards of boorde to make 

pulpytts for the angells viijd 

payd for a pece of wode to make feete 

for them iiijd 

payd to the carpenters for makyng ij 

pulpytts &c iiijs^® 

Too much stress cannot be laid on this entry; for 
we have here a definite reference to the two 
separate sedes for the good and the bad angels at 
Doomsday. " iiij yards of boorde " could not have 
made scaffolds for these angels; therefore we may 
suppose that this lumber must have been meant for 
the regular pageant sedes. • 

Coventry " Purification ". The Coventry Puri- 
fication of Mary also furnishes indisputable evi- 
dence of the use of both raised sedes and simul- 
taneous scenery in its presentation. As there is 
nothing in the first part of the play that necessitates 
the use of sedes, we may pass over that and take up 
the action at the point where Simeon goes from 
his home to that of his clerks, to inform them of 
the coming of Christ. In the course of the conver- 
sation which ensues at the clerks' sedes, Simeon 
and one of the clerks make the following remarks 
about decorating the temple for the visit of Christ : 

Clarecus. Then hast we this alter to araye 
And clothis off onowre theron to laye 
Ande the grownde straw we with flowris gay 
Thatt of oddur swetely smellis. 

^® Coventry Mysteries, p. 71. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 135 

Semeon. And when he aprochis nere this 

place, 
Syng then with me thatt conyng hasse 
And the othur the meyne space 

for joie rynge ye the belUs. — 11. 359-66. 

There Semeon and his Clarks gothe vp to the tempull 
and Gaberell cumyth to the tempull dore and seyth [that 
Mary must come now and make her offering.] 

Here we have Simeon and his clerk referring to 
the altar as if it were plainly visible and im- 
mediately at hand ("this alter", "when he 
aprochis nere this place"), whereas they are both 
supposedly some distance away and ought not to be 
able to see the altar inside the temple. And that 
the temple and altar — they are both spoken of as 
one and the same thing — are on a raised sedes, is 
evidenced by the fact that "Semeon and his 
Clarks gothe vp to the tempull ". If the temple 
were on the pageant-wagon and the clerks' locus 
on a scaffold across the street, as Mr. Albright 
would have us believe, the direction would be 
" gothe over ", not " gothe vp ". 

But there are still other references to the eleva- 
tion of this sedes above the rest of the stage. 
When Joseph and Mary approach the temple, the 
direction reads: Here the [Simeon and his clerks] 
cum dozvne with presession to mete them. And 
other stage-directions are: There Mare and 
Josoff departis owt of the vpper parte of the 
pagand (after 1. 704) ; There the all goo vp to the 



136 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

awter and lesus before (after 1. 805) ; There the 
goo done into the for pagond and lesus steylyth 
awey (after 1. 814). Likewise the speech of 
Mary after 1. 1028 shows the elevation of the 
temple sedes: — 

[Mary.] See, husebond, where he syttyth 

aloft 
Amonge yondur masturs soo moche off myght. 

— 11. 1029-30. 

The definiteness of these references led Sharp 
to the following conclusions : " The preceding di- 
rections, and extract from Mary's speech to her 
husband, evidently show that there were two floors 
or stages in the Pageant vehicle, one somewhat 
higher than the other, and representing an interior 
view of the Temple, as it should seem, and whereon 
a considerable portion of the play was performed. 
It must not, however, be understood that one of 
these floors was above, i. e. over the other, but that 
when the scene lay in the Temple, the performers 
ascended by one or more steps to the back division 
of the stage, which . . . was probably fitted up so 
as to favour this supposed change of place ".^^ 

Another reference to the raised sedes on the 
stage is to be found in the Towneley Caesar Au- 
gustus, where, when Sirinus comes to visit Caesar, 
the latter says: — 

1^ Weavers' Pageant, p. 14. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 137 

Imperator. Welcom, sir syrynne, to this hall, 
Besyde my self here sytt thou shall, 
Come vp belyf to me. — 11. 154-6. 

And the " selldall for god" mentioned in the 
Coventry smiths' accounts for 1560/* although 
Sharp thought it "perhaps the settle or seat on 
which Christ was placed in mock dignity, in the 
interval between his condemnation and cruci- 
fixion ", may have been a special sedes for Christ. 

Crucifixion Scenes. And, finally, attention 
may be called to the fact that crucifixion scenes 
were customarily represented on a raised sedes. 
In the York shearmen's Christ Led up to Calvary 
John and Maria Sancta go up to Calvary, but are 
run "doune pe hill" by the soldiers.^" Likewise 
in the butchers' Death and Burial of Christ we find 
Pilate going to visit the body of the crucified Christ 
and referring to him on " gone hill ". And the 
robber crucified on Christ's left asks him. 

If pou be Goddis sone so free. 

Why hyng pou pus on pis hille? — 11. 196-7. 

In the Chester Passion Christ is led versus montem 
Calvariae; and in the ironmongers' Crucifixion, 
when Symon of Syrrye is found on the way to 
Calvary, he is bidden to come 

18 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 26-7. 
1® Smith, York Plays, p. 344, 1. 210. 



138 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

And take this crosse anon in hye, 
Unto the mounte of Calverye.^^ 

These crucifixion scenes probably were trebly 
influenced in being thus placed on a raised locus 
always. The convention of elevated sedes, as 
Chambers has shown, had been inherited from the 
church liturgical plays, in which the crucifix cus- 
tomarily stood above the altar. But, in addition to 
this influence, the Englishmen of the fifteenth cen- 
tury, almost all of whom were Catholic, were ac- 
customed to seeing the crucifix regularly in an 
exalted place above the high altar of the church. 
And, finally, when we remember the common tradi- 
tion that the crucifixion took place on a hill, it 
seems reasonable to suppose that this treble influ- 
ence must have had its weight in putting the cruci- 
fixion scenes on raised sedes in the pageant-wagons. 

Thus we have found what seems incontrovert- 
ible evidence of the use of individual, raised sedes 
on the Corpus Christi stages and, hence, evidence 
that the wagons were regarded as stages rather 
than as separate sedes. Our evidence so far, how- 
ever, does not prove that simultaneous representa- 
tion was used. It remains now, therefore, to 
prove, not only that individual sedes were used on 
the Corpus Christi wagons, but that two or more 

20 Wright, Chester Plays, n. 51. The phrase, "in hye" 
(in haste), of course has nothing to do with the point in 
question. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 139 

of these sedes were to be found decorated and 
visible on one pageant-wagon at the same time. 

York " Purification of Mary ". Let us look first 
at the York Purification of Mary, where two sedes, 
one for the temple at Jerusalem and one for 
Joseph's house at Bethlehem, were so close together 
on the same stage as to cause actual confusion in 
the MS. The play opens with the Prisbeter in the 
temple at Jerusalem telling us that he is there to 
receive all offerings brought into the temple. 
Anna, too, abides in the temple day and night, and 
she prophesies that Christ will soon be brought into 
the temple. The scene then shifts to Simeon's 
house in Jerusalem, where the old man is bewailing 
his age and feebleness and praying God that he 
may see the Christ before he dies. At this point 
an angel enters and promises him that he shall see 
Jesus. Then the scene shifts to the house of Mary 
and Joseph at Bethlehem, beginning as follows : 

Mary. Joseph, my husbonde and my feer, 
Ye take to me grathely entent, 
I wyll you showe in this manere, 
What I wyll do, thus haue I ment. 
Full xl days is comme and went 
Sens that my babb Jesu was borne, 
Therefore I wolde he were present. 
As Moyses lawes sais hus beforne. 
Here in this temple before Goddes sight.— 

11. 187-95. 



140 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

After some debate and hesitation they decide to 
go, and at line 270, to show that they have not yet 
started, we find: — 

Mar. Joseph, my spowse, ye say full trewe, 
Than lett vs dresse hus furth our way. 

To which Joseph replies : 

Jos. Go we than Mary, and do oure dewe, 
And make meekly offerand this day. 

11. 272-3. 

But immediately in the next line, he says, " Lo, 
here is the temple ", etc.; and they enter and offer 
their two doves. Then the scene changes again 
and shows us Simeon's house, or sedes, with an 
angel bidding him get ready and come to the 
temple, where he shall see Christ; and he goes and 
receives the child. 

According to Mr. Albright's theory, the temple 
in this scene must have been on one stage, probably 
the pageant-wagon because that was certainly 
propertied, while Simeon's and Joseph's houses 
must have been represented by separate scaffolds 
*' at a distance of fifty to seventy-five feet from 
the main carriage ".^^ But this theory is proved to 
be absolutely untenable by line 195, where Mary, 
while still in her house in Bethlehem, refers to the 

21 Albright, Shaksperian Stage, p. 27. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 141 

temple in Jerusalem as *' Here in this temple before 
Goddes sight ". Miss L. T. Smith observed this 
incongruity in the staging and characterized it as 
" probably a slip due to the fact that Bethlehem 
and the temple were near together on the stage ",^^ 
which must have been the case. For, in addition 
to the indication in Mary's speech that the temple 
is " here ", immediately on their leaving their home 
in Bethlehem we find them at the temple and pre- 
paring to enter, thus showing that the two sedes 
must have been immediately adjacent to each other 
on the same stage. Certainly Mr. Albright's 
theory of a distance of fifty or seventy-five feet 
cannot be held for a moment ; for they could never 
have left one stage, walked a distance of twenty 
yards or more, and yet have confused the two 
sedes with each other. 

Likewise, it cannot be doubted for a moment that 
the scenes in this play of the Purification of Mary 
were decorated and represented simultaneously. 
One instance only will suffice. When Joseph and 
Mary have entered the temple, offered their doves, 
and Anna has welcomed the blessed babe " here 
in this hall ", she suddenly breaks off in her speech 
of welcome and the action begins in Simeon's house 
with the angel bidding Simeon come to the temple 
to see Jesus. Here, then, we have two simul- 
taneous scenes, the angel and Simeon at one sedes 
and the Prisbeter, Joseph, Mary, and Jesus at 

22 York Plays, p. 439 n. 



142 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

another; and the temple scene has to wait till 
Simeon can get there to hail the babe and the 
mother. 

York " Adoration ". The York Adoration begins 
with the three Magi meeting on their way to 
Bethlehem. Jerusalem comes first in their journey, 
however ; so they decide to stop at Herod's court in 
Jerusalem to get his permission to pass through 
the land. The three kings are here dropped in the 
midst of their journey and the scene shifts to 
Herod's seat, where a nuntius announces the pres- 
ence of the Magi in the land and their coming to 
the court. At this Herod exclaims : 

Herod. Haue done; dresse vs in riche array. 
And ilke man make tham mery chere. — 

11. 91-2. 

The Magi now arrive and beg Herod's permission 
to seek the Christ. He at first refuses, but on the 
advice of one of his counsellors changes his mind 
and decides to let them go, but with the promise 
that they will report to him when they have found 
Jesus, he thinking that he himself may thus find 
out the Christ and put him to death. Then Herod 
says: 

Sir kyngis, I halde me paide 

Of all youre purpose playne. 

Wendis furth, youre forward to fulfill, 

To Bedlem, it is but here at hande. — 11. 191 -4. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 143 

Herod, let it be noted, is in Jerusalem at his court, 
and yet he speaks of Bethlehem as '* here at hande ", 
— not over yonder on the other platform, but here 
on the other end of this stage. Then the three 
kings depart and Herod begins rejoicing over the 
trap he has laid, concluding his speech as follows : 

Go we nowe, till pei come agayne, 

To playe vs in som othir place. 

This halde I gud counsaill, 

Yitt wolde I no man wist; 

For sertis, we shall not faill 

To loyse pam as vs list.— 11. 211-16. 

Then occurs the direction: " Nota, the Harrod 
passeth, and the iij kynges comyth agayn to make 
there offerynges ". Accordingly they enter, ex- 
claiming that they have lost their sign, the star; 
but on finding it immediately, they go to the other 
end of the stage and make their offerings to the 
child in the manger. Then the scene closes with 
an angel warning them to go home by another route 
and not to see Herod any more. 

The point of chief interest to us about this scene 
is that Herod's court in Jerusalem and the stable in 
Bethlehem must both have been on the same stage 
and visible at the same time. Why else should it 
be necessary for Herod to retire before the three 
kings enter again? That Jerusalem and Bethlehem 
were both on the same stage is shown both by the 



144 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

fact that Herod retires before the three kings come 
again and by Herod's reference to Bethlehem as 
" here at hande " ; and that they were presented 
simultaneously must be admitted from the speech 
of the first king: — 

i Rex. Sir, of felashippe are we fayne, 
Now sail we wende forth all in f eere, 
God graunte vs or we come agayne 
Som gode hartyng per-of to here. 
Sir, here is Jerusalem, 
To wisse vs als we goo, 
And be-yonde is Bedleem, 
per schall we seke alsoo. — 11 53-60. 

These lines indicate clearly three places, two of 
them simultaneously decorated: Jerusalem, Beth- 
lehem, and the meeting-place of the Magi. The 
evidence, however, as to how these loca were repre- 
sented is less clear. It seems probable that Beth- 
lehem was a house in which were Joseph, Mary, a 
maid, and the child in a manger. This much may 
be surmised from the popular conception of the 
scene, as well as from the speeches of the maid and 
the three kings at the door of the stable. — 

i Rex. A! siris! I se it [the star] stande 

A-boven where he is borne, 

Lo ! here is pe house at hande. 

We haue nojt myste pis morne. ' 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 145 
[Maid comes to the door.] 

Anc. Whame seke je syrs, be wayes wilde, 
With talkyng, trauelyng to and froo? 
Her wonnes a woman with her childe, 
And hir husband; her ar no moo. — 11. 225-32. 

This house scene would be unintelligible without 
decorations of some kind, especially since the Magi 
do not come at once upon the holy family, but meet 
the maid first, probably at the door of the house. 

And as to the localization of the Jerusalem, or 
Herod, sedes, there is even less definite evidence; 
but we may suppose that at least a throne for 
Herod was used and that this was placed between 
the Bethlehem locus and the platea where the three 
kings come together; for the first king when they 
meet speaks of Jerusalem as " here " and Beth- 
lehem " be-yonde ". This would locate the platea 
at one end, Herod's throne in the middle, and 
Joseph's stable at the other end of the wagon. 

There is another question raised by this play: 
Were the holy family and Herod and his followers 
on the stage from the beginning? If they were, 
the matter of simultaneous scenery is settled at 
once; and it seems more than probable that they 
were ; for no mention of an entrance is made any- 
where—none is needed after the beginning of the 
play, provided they were all already in their seats, 
— and the only exit made is that of Herod. 



146 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Herod's exit is entirely understandable, however, 
since he has no further part in the play and since 
the three kings must pass by his sedes, even if they 
go home " be other vi^aies ". And since, too, his 
exit is noted in the directions, it is entirely con- 
sistent with his having been on the stage from the 
beginning of the scene. 

Entrances and Exits. And while we are on 
the subject of exits, mention may be made of the 
system of entrances and exits in the Coventry 
shearmen and tailors' play. Some of the stage- 
directions are as follows: Here the angell de- 
partyth, and Joseff cumyth in (after 1. 99) ; There 
the scheppardis syngith ageyne and goth forthe of 
the place; and the ij profettis cumyth in (after 1. 
331) ; There the profettis gothe furthe and Erod 
cumyth in, and the messenger (after 1. 474) ; Her,^ 
Erod goth awey and the iij kyngis speykyth in the 
strete (after 1. 539) ; Here Erode cumyth in ageyne 
(after 1. 602) ; etc. The question may be legiti- 
mately asked again here: If Mr. Albright's 
adopted theory is correct and there were extra 
stages and scaffolds for the representation of the 
scenes, why should entrances and exits be found 
necessary? The answer plainly is not to be found 
in such a theory as that advanced by Mr. Albright. 
On the contrary, the answer is to be found only in 
the fact that there was a single pageant-stage, 
which the dramatists found too small to contain all 
the sedes necessary for a proper representation of 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 147 

their plays. The result was that they were com- 
pelled to remove the actors from their limited 
stage, in order to present adequately this play of 
the annunciation, the visit to Elizabeth, Joseph's 
trouble about Mary, the nativity, etc. 

Chester " Entry into Jerusalem ". But our evi- 
dence does not stop here. The Chester cycle has 
many indications of simultaneous scenery and of 
the pageant-wagon as a stage rather than as a 
sedes. The fourteenth play, Christ's Entry into 
Jerusalem, begins with Christ telling his disciples 
that they will go to Bethany, whither they have 
been invited by Simon the Leper. Peter and 
Philip reply, and then comes the stage-direction: 
Tunc ibunt versus domum Simonis Leprosi. 
Simon, Lazarus, and Martha welcome Christ and 
Tunc Jesus sedehit, et omnes cum eo, et veniet 
Maria Magdelena, cum alh astro unguenti, et 
lamentando dicat Maria Magdelena. Mary washes 
the feet of her Lord, Judas objects to the waste of 
the ointment, and Tunc surget Jesu, et stando dicat 
discipulis suis ut sequitur. 

Jesus. 

Petter and Phillipe, my brethren free 
Before you a castill you maie see: 
Goe you theider, and feche anon to me 
An asse and her fole also. . . . 
Tunc ibunt in civitatem, et dicat primus 
janitor. 



148 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Peter and Philip get the donkey and return to 
Jesus, and the Janitor announces the coming of 
Christ to the citizens, who go to meet him, singing 
" Hosanna ", etc. Tunc Jesus equitabit versus 
civitatem, et omnes cives pannos suos in via pro- 
sternent, et cum venerit ad templum descendens de 
asina dicat vendentibus cum flagello: 

Doe awaye, and use not this thinge, 
For it is not my likinge ; 
You make my fathers dwelHnge 
A place of merchandise. 

Primuz marcator. 

What frecke is this that makes fare. 
And casteth downe all our ware? 
Come no man heither full yare, 
That did us suche anoye. 

Secundus marcator. 

Owte ! out ! woes me ! 

My table with my moneye 

Is spread abrode. #, 

The rest of the play does not serve our present 
purpose, but this much is sufficient to show the use 
of simultaneous scenery on the pageant-stage. 
And it shows itself, too, in direct contradiction to 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 149 

Mr. Albright's theory of one propertied locus and 
all the others bare ; for in this play two of the sedes 
were certainly propertied. The house of Simon, 
for instance, had seats for Jesus and his disciples 
and must therefore have been a permanently dec- 
orated sedes. Likewise, the temple must have been 
propertied; for the first seller speaks of having all 
his " ware " cast down, and the second seller refers 
to the table on which his money was spread. Fur- 
thermore, the temple as a whole must have been 
indicated by a definite enclosure from which the 
sellers could be driven. In fact, it would be diffi- 
cult to find a play showing clearer evidence of the 
necessity of simultaneous scenery, or one more 
directly in opposition to Mr. Albright's theory. 

The Chester "Passion". The evidence for 
simultaneous scenery in the Chester Passion is de- 
finite and clear, although Mr. Albright has included 
this play among those which he thinks would 
illustrate his theory. Of this scene he says: 

Chester, Passion of Christ. Christ is sent from the 
Bishops (one scaffold) to Pilate (on the pageant wagon, 
because most of the action takes place there), who in turn 
sends him to Herod (another scaffold). He is soon re- 
turned to Pilate (pageant), where the trial, final judg- 
ment, and long scenes of torture follow.^s 

On the contrary, all the actual evidence as to the 
staging of this pageant is opposed to Mr. Albright's 
viev/, as is clear from an analysis of the play. 
23 Shakesperian Stage, p. 28. 



150 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

The scene opens with Christ and the Jews at the 
hall of Annas and Caiaphas, where Christ is accused 
and tortured. The stage-direction states: Tunc 
Judei statuent Jesum in cathedram; et dicat tor- 
quendo Primus Judeus, Christ is next led to 
Pilate's hall {Tunc Cayphas et Annas et Judei ad- 
ducant Jesum ad Pylatum) ; then to Herod {ad 
Herodem) ; and finally back to Pilate {ad Pilatum), 
where he is despoiled of his clothing and tied to a 
column {Tunc spoliahunt ipsum et ligahunt ad 
columnam) . 

These stage-directions point clearly to three dif- 
ferent sedes in this play, the halls of Annas and 
Caiaphas, Pilate, and Herod. It would seem prob- 
able that these places were represented by chairs, 
or thrones, or some such property as would fittingly 
symbolize the rank and dignity of the rulers. It is 
certain, however, that Annas and Caiaphas's and 
Pilate's sedes must have been decorated and visible 
at the same time; for Christ is made to sit in a 
chair {in cathedram) at the Annas-and-Caiaphas 
sedes and is bound to a column of some kind {ad 
columnam) at Pilate's. And since Pilate had to 
remain in his seat, in order to be there when the 
Jews and Christ returned from Herod, it cannot be 
doubted that the play was multiple and simulta- 
neous in both scenery and representation. 

The Chester " Ascension " . Play XXI of the 
Chester cycle presents the Ascension and affords 
clear evidence of the simultaneous representation 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 151 

of two propertied scenes. The play begins with a 
speech by Christ : — 

My brethren that sitten in companye, 
With peace I greete you hartelye. — 11. 1-2. 

Christ eats with his disciples later at this sedes 
{comedit Jesus cum discipulis suis), and we may 
believe that he, too, sits with them, probably about 
a table. Then, after the meal is finished, the stage- 
direction reads: Tunc adducit discipulos in Beth- 
aniam, et cum pervenerit ad locum ascendens dicat 
Jesus, stans in loco uhi ascendit, Data est michi 
omnis potestas in celo et in terra. From here he 
ascends into heaven, but while in mid-air he stops 
and speaks to his disciples: Cum autem imple- 
verit Jesus canticum, stet in medio quasi supra 
nubes. . . . Jesus autem pausans eodem loco dicat. 
This outline and these directions afford con- 
clusive proof of the multiple representation of two 
propertied scenes. In the first scene a table and 
some chairs must certainly have been present ; and 
in the second some device, probably a windlass," 
was used, so that Christ could ascend to heaven 
and yet stop midway {supra nubes) for a final ex- 
hortation to his disciples. And since both the 
sedes were furnished with permanent properties, 
the play was multiple throughout. 

Towneley Cycle. A sufficient number of 
2* Cf. Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 47 and 72. 



152 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

examples has probably been given already to prove 
conclusively that more than one simultaneous, dec- 
orated scene w^as to be found on a single Corpus 
Christi stage and that the pageant-v^^agon v^as itself 
the whole stage. But for the sake of showing the 
uniform principles of representation in all the 
cycles it is necessary to consider the Towneley 
series as well. 

Towneley " Creation " . The Towneley Creation 
begins with the narration and symbolical represen- 
tation by God of the events of the first five days of 
the world. At the end of the fifth day God halts 
in his narration sufficiently to allow the Cherubyn 
to praise him at length for his wondrous works. 
Then occurs the stage-direction : hie deus recedit a 
suo solio & lucifer sedebit in eodem solio. Next 
follow Lucifer's growing pride and ambition and 
the overthrow of him and his hosts into hell. 
Then, after their fall, the first angel exclaims : 

Alas, alas, and wele-wo! 
lucifer, whi fell thou so? 
We, that were angels so fare, 
and sat so hie aboue the ayere. 
Now ar we waxen blak as any coyll. 

— 11. 132-6. 

God now proceeds to the creation of man, which 
he accomplishes by the mere act of touching 
him. — 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 153 

[Deus.] now make we man to oure liknes, 
that shall be keper of more & les, 

of fowles, and fysh in flood. Et tanget eum. 
spreyte of life I in the blaw, 
good and ill both shall thou knaw ; 

rise vp, and stand bi me.— 11. 165-70. 

Then God creates woman and decides to put the 
pair into paradise. So he says to his angel, who 
has not been concerned in the action involving the 
creation of man and woman : 

[Deus.] Ryse vp, myn angell cherubyn, 
Take and leyd theym both in, 

And leyf them there in peasse.— U. igS"?- 
Tunc capit cherubyn adam per manum, etc. 

The man and the woman are then led into paradise 
and the play ends with a hell-scene which explains 
that man was made to take the place of the fallen 

angels. 

This play has been cited because of the passage 
showing the custom of the actors remaining on the 
stage when not in action, as well as for its evi- 
dence of the use of multiple scenery. When God 
has need of the angel, there is no direction, " Enter 
Angel ", thereby indicating that the actor has been 
off the stage; but God commands, " Ryse vp, myn 
angell cherubyn ", showing that the character has 
been sitting in his locus waiting for his time to play. 



154 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

From this play we may see also that multiple dec- 
oration must have been used on the Wakefield 
stage. Hell was represented; the angel had a 
locus; God had a throne into which Lucifer climbed 
while the Father was away; and Paradise was at 
least decorated with a tree and some sort of en- 
closure from which the man and woman might be 
driven. The whole is a clear example of the use 
of multiple decorations. 

The Towneley " Conspiracy '*. One other scene 
from this cycle will suffice. The Conspiracy is a 
long play including the Last Supper, the agony 
in the garden of Gethsemane, and the betrayal of 
Christ. It begins in Pilate's hall, where Judas 
enters and bargains to betray his master. Then 
Pilate says : 

Pilatus. we shall hym haue, and that in hy, 

ffull hastely here in this hall. 
Sir knyghtys, that ar of dede dughty, 

stynt neuer in stede ne stall, 
Bot looke ye bryng hym hastely, 

that fatur fals, what so befall. — 11. 306-11. 

Then the action at this sedes, Pilate's hall, ceases, 
and Pilate and his group remain silent for a space 
of about two hundred lines. The question im- 
mediately arises: Do they remain in their places, 
histrionically invisible, or do they actually leave the 
stage? We have found in the play just discussed 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 155 

that the actors kept their seats, and we shall see 
later in this volume ^^ that they regularly kept their 
places when not in action. Therefore it may be 
supposed with a reasonable degree of certainty that 
Pilate and his men merely remained silent at their 
sedes while the action was going on at the other 
side of the stage. 

At 1. 314 the disciples and Christ take up the 
action, the latter bidding John and Peter go into 
the city, where they will meet a man who will lend 
a room 'in which the Passover may be eaten. John 
and Peter go into the city, meet the man, and he 
lends them a chamber. Then occurs the direction: 
Tunc parent lohannes & petrus mensam. Here, 
then, we must have two places visible at the same 
time, the place where Christ and his disciples are 
(probably the platea) and the chamber where John 
and Peter are (a definitely located sedes), even if 
we leave out of account the probability that Pilate's 
hall, either with or without its actors, is still visible 
to the audience. 

Then, after the Passover has been eaten and the 
disciples' feet have been washed, Christ says to 
his followers : 

Ryse ye vp, ilkon, 

and weynd we on oure way, 
As fast as we may gone, 

to olyuete, to pray. 

25 C/. pp. 160-67. 



156 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Peter, lamys, and lohn, 

ryse vp and folow me! 
My tyme it commys anone ; 

Abyde styll here, ye thre. 
Say youre prayers here by-neth. — 11. 488-96, 

This passage indicates a third located sedes, Mt. 
OHvet, which must have been distinguished by an 
elevation of at least a few feet, because the dis- 
ciples are bidden to remain " here by-neth " until 
Christ returns. 

In this play, then, it is perfectly clear that at 
least three, and possibly four, places were distin- 
guished on the stage at one time : Pilate's hall, Mt. 
Olivet, the chamber in which the Passover was 
eaten, and possibly the " city " as distinguished 
from the chamber. The room was localized cer- 
tainly by a table and chairs, Pilate's hall perhaps by 
a throne, and Mt. Olivet by an elevation of a fevv^ 
feet above the rest of the stage. 

Illustrations Chosen by Mr. Albright. In our 
argument, however, we need not confine ourselves 
to plays that may have escaped the notice of those 
who regard the pageant-wagon as a sedes rather 
than as a stage. Let us look for a moment at the 
plays which Mr. Albright himself has chosen to 
stage according to his theory, remembering, how- 
ever, that he has no basis for his method other than 
a mere opinion — one which we have already found 
to be without foundation. For lack of space only 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 157 

two of these, in addition to the Chester Passion al- 
ready discussed,"^ will be taken up, but the hastiest 
adequate study possible will show that Mr. Al- 
bright's view, even in his own chosen plays, is far 
less probable than that of a single stage for each 
complete scene. 

York " Angels and Shepherds ". One of those 
that Mr. Albright mentions is the York Angels 
and Shepherds, the staging of which he sketches 
as follows: 

York, The Angels and the Shepherds. The shepherds 
have met and are in the midst of a discussion (scaffold), 
when the star appears and directs them to the place where 
Christ is born (pageant). ^^ 

But there is another and, with what we now know 
of Corpus Christi staging, a far more plausible 
view of the method of presenting this play. The 
scene is supposed to center around Bethlehem and 
the fields near by, and a big moveable pageant- 
wagon with double stages is used to represent the 
whole. The upper stage is heaven, where the 
angels sit; the lower one is Bethlehem and the 
fields near by. The part of the lower stage repre- 
senting Bethlehem is decorated to represent a house 
or stable, in which an old man with a long white 
beard sits with a young woman and a child in a 
crib. The rest of the stage represents the fields 

26 Cf. pp. 149-50. 

27 Shaksperian Stage, p. 27. 



158 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

outside Bethlehem, where three shepherds are walk- 
ing. The First Shepherd is talking: — 

[i Past.] Oure forme-fadres, faythfull in 

fere, 
Bothe Osye and Isaye, 
Preued pat a prins with-outen pere 
Shulde descende doune in a lady, 
And to make mankynde clerly, 

To leche J)am pat are lorne. 
And in Bedlem here-by 

Sail pat same barne be borne. — 11. 5-12. 

The Second Shepherd replies : 

a Past. Or he be borne in burgh hereby, 

Balaham, brothir, me haue herde say, 

A Sterne shulde schyne and signifie. 

With light full lemes like any day. — 11. 13-16. 

The Third Shepherd speaks; then the angels in 
heaven above begin singing, and a star is hung out 
from the top of the stage. The shepherds gaze in 
wonder at the vision of the angels and at the star ; 
they discuss the whole and attempt to imitate the 
music; and then they go into the house and adore 
the child. 

It is very noticeable here that Bethlehem is 
spoken of as " here-by " and that, after the vision 
of the angels in the sky at line 36 of the play, the 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 159 

three shepherds discuss the music and the angels 
and their prophecy for forty-five Hues, but they 
make no attempt whatever toward going to Beth- 
lehem before Hne 82 ; and yet at Hne 86, in the time 
taken to repeat four hnes, they are there. The 
whole passage, beginning with the speech of the 
Third Shepherd at line 79, is as follows : 

Hi Pas. Hym for to fynde has we no drede, (79) 

I sail you telle a-chesonne wdiy, 

jone Sterne to pat lorde sail vs lede. 

a Pas. sa ! pou sais sotli, go we for-thy {S2) 

hym to honnour. 
And make myrthe and melody, 

with sange to seke cure savyour. 
Ef tunc cantant. 
i Pas. Breder, bees all blythe and glad, (86) 
Here is the burght per we shulde be. 

And yet this is one of the plays which Mr. Albright 
thinks is a sure indication of his view of separate 
stages for each scene ! 

The Towneley " Purification ". The Towneley 
Purification is another play that Mr. Albright has 
chosen to illustrate his theory of Corpus Christi 
staging. Of this scene he says: 

Towneley, Purification. Simeon praying that he may 
see the Christ and die (one scaffold) is directed to the 
temple, where the bells are ringing (pageant). Mary and 



160 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Joseph (on another scaffold) think it time for the purifi- 
cation, and start for the temple. There (at the pageant) 
they are all supposed to meet.^s 

Mr. Albright has given a correct, brief outline of 
the play, but there is no evidence w^hatever for his 
method of staging. In the first place, the play, as 
v^^e have it, was not given on a pageant-v^agon,^^ a 
fact vv^hich Mr. Albright failed to notice, but on a 
fixed stage ; and the present writer can see no need 
whatever for requiring three separate stages for 
this one scene. On the contrary, Simeon had his 
sedes, Joseph and Mary theirs, and there was a 
separately decorated one for the temple, — all on the 
same stage. Simeon's and Joseph's may or may 
not have been decorated; the MS offers no evi- 
dence whatever. Then the angel came and sum- 
moned Simeon to the temple sedes, where Joseph 
and Mary met him a few minutes later. 

Multiple Representation. In the same way 
the rest of the plays cited by Mr. Albright might 
be analyzed — likewise any other play in any other 
cycle, — but these seem sufficient to show the use of 
simultaneous scenery on the pageant-wagon. Seven 
plays in all have now been noticed from the 
Chester, Coventry, Towneley, and York cycles, all 
of them, it seems to the author, showing the same 
use of simultaneous scenery, with the pageant- 
wagon as the stage rather than as a sedes. And 

28 Loc. cit., p. 28. 

29 C/. p. 129. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 161 

the argument would now be complete ^° if it were 
not for the fact that some one might raise the ob- 
jection that the scenes enacted in the plays above 
cited may have been successive rather than simul- 
taneous. In other words, it might be objected that 
after the creation of the nine orders of angels in 
the York Creation, while Lucifer was making his 
plans against the heavenly hosts, Deus did not 
withdraw to a separate part of the stage, but left 
the platform entirely, as the custom was in Eliza- 
beth's day, thus giving another scene; or, after 
the fall of Lucifer, while the demons were raging 
and reproaching each other, that Deus and the rest 
of the angels were not visible on the upper stage, 
but had withdrawn and made the scene successive 
rather than multiple; and after Lucifer and his 
companions had ceased their wrangling and Deus 
had taken up his cue on the upper platform, that 
the demons had withdrawn entirely and were no 
longer visible; — in other words, that the scenery 
was simultaneous and the representation successive 
rather than multiple. This is a view hardly tenable 
in view of what is now known of the Corpus Christi 
stage; for we have already seen in the Wakefield 
cycle that the custom was for the actors to keep 

80 To the argument already advanced for all the sedes 
on a single pageant-wagon the author would like to add a 
further argument that the platea, as well as the sedes, 
was sometimes propertied and decorated. A propertied 
platea would be an impossibility according to Mr. Al- 
bright's theory. Proof for this argument of a propertied 
platea is reserved for the next chapter. Cf. pp. 170-86. 



162 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

their positions when not engaged in action.^^ The 
same convention might therefore be reasonably ex- 
pected to have existed in the other cycles; and a 
few examples are given here to show that such was 
the case. 

York " Dream of Pilate's Wife ". The York 
Dream of Pilate*s Wife and Jesus before Pilate 
opens with a scene in Pilate's judgment-hall, where 
Pilate receives a visit from his wife, Dame Per- 
cula, who brings with her their son and a maid. 
After a rather lengthy visit, during which the 
family all drink wine together. Dame Percula and 
her son and maid all go home to the other end of 
the stage and Pilate goes to bed. — 

Pil. I comaunde pe to come nere, for I will 

kare to my couche, 
Haue in thy handes hendely and heue me fro 

hyne. 
But loke pat pou tene me not with pi tastyng, 

but tendirly me touche. 
Bed. A! sir, yhe whe wele! 
PiL Yha, I haue wette with me wyne. 
Yhit helde doune and lappe me even [here], 
For I will slelye slepe vnto synne. 
Loke pat no man nor no myron of myne 
With no noyse be neghand me nere. . . . 
Bed, iVhe ! so sir, slepe ye, and saies nomore. 

11. 133-49. 

SIC/, pp. 152-4. 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 163 

In the meantime, however, Dame Percula has got to 
her scdes, where she goes to bed. — 

Dom. Nowe are we at home, do helpe yf ye 

may, 
For I will make me redye and rayke to my 

reste. 
Anc. Yhe are werie, madame, for-wente of 

youre way. 
Do boune you to bedde, for pat holde I beste. 
Fil. Here is a bedde arayed of pe beste. 
Dom. Do happe me, and faste hense ye hye. 
Anc. Madame, anone all dewly is dressid. 
Fil. With no stalkyng nor no striffe be ye 

stressed. 
Dom. Nowe be yhe in pese, both youre 

carpyng and crye. — 11. 150-8. 

After she has gone to rest, her son and, supposedly, 
the maid lie down and go to sleep; for, when the 
devil has come to her in a dream and told her, that, 
if Jesus is unjustly doomed, Pilate and she will be 
destroyed, she bids the boy get up in a hurry and 
run to her lord with the news of her dream. The 
boy complains sorely at being awakened at mid- 
night, promises to go however, but decides to take 
a nap before doing so. Then the soldiers come 
forward with their prisoner, awaken Pilate, and the 
trial, which is not useful for our purpose here, 
begins. 



164 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

In this play we have Pilate, Dame Percula, her 
son, and possibly her maid, all asleep on the stage 
at the same time. Dame Percula can not have 
gone off the stage, because the devil immediately 
comes to her in her dream ; her son cannot have 
left after putting her to sleep, because she bids him 
get up and carry the news to Pilate; and Pilate 
cannot have gone, because the soldiers come and 
awaken him to get his judgment on Christ. Dame 
Percula may or may not have left the stage after 
her dream — we do not hear from her any more, — 
but certainly when the soldiers enter the platea, 
wherever they may have come from — whether from 
a separate sedes or from the dressing-room below, 
— we have Pilate and his boy asleep on the stage 
and each in a different locus. 

And, in addition to the actual fact that these 
characters were all asleep on the stage at the same 
time, there is a definite reason why they were each 
made to go to sleep during the process of action at 
another sedes. The reason for Dame Percula's 
sleep is evident at a glance : it is that the devil may 
come to her in a dream ; but the reason for the boy's 
is not, especially since the Dame sends him in great 
haste to Pilate. According to Mr. Albright's 
theory there is no solution to this question at all; 
in fact, the mere presence of two propertied bed- 
room scenes in the same play is contrary to his 
theory. But if we allow Pilate's hall and Dame 
Percula's chamber both on the same pageant-stage, 



; 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 165 

an easy solution is offered: that, on account of the 
close proximity of the sedes on a necessarily limited 
stage, the author of the play was compelled to re- 
sort to some such expedient as this to make the 
scene seem as real as possible. Stage curtains ^ 
were unknown, shift of scenery impossible; and j a a 
since the two scenes must of necessity be presented , 
close to each other, then the easiest way around this ii^^<-^^ 
crudity, which the author of this scene seems to fc^^J' 

have recognized, perhaps unconsciously, was to put 
each actor to sleep while the other one was playing. 
Chester " Lot and Abraham ". So far as the 
stage-directions go, however, the most definite and 
specific evidence of the actors remaining on the 
stage and in their separate sedes comes from the 
Chester Lot and Abraham, ^^ which immediately 
follows the Noah's Flood, The play begins with a 
prologue by a messenger, who says: 

All lordinges that be heare presente, 

And harcken me with good intente, 

Howe Noye awaie from us he wente, 

And all his companye; 

And Abraham, through Codes grace. 

He is comen into this place. 

And ye will geve us rombe and space 

To tell you of storye. — p. 57. 

Then Abraham and Lot come into their places and 

82 Cf. Wright's edition, printed for the Shakespeare So- 
ciety, London, 1843, pp. 57-/6. 



166 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

the stage-direction reads: Heare Abraham, hav- 
inge restored his brother Late into his ozvne place, 
doth firste of al begine the playe. Abraham now 
thanks God for the victory over the four heathen 
kings and vows a tenth of all the spoil received 
from the fight. Then occurs the stage-direction: 
Hcare Lote, torninge hym to his brother Abraham, 
dothe saye. . . . There is no need for further 
analysis of this play. Lot in *' his owne place " 
" torninge hym to his brother Abraham " is suffi- 
cient to show the custom of each actor keeping his 
own sedes. 

Other Illustrations. In like manner, numer- 
ous other examples of an actor's remaining on the 
stage when not in action may be noted at much less 
length. In the York Purification cited above the 
scene in the temple (1. 339) is made to wait while 
an angel tells Simeon of Christ's presence there 
(11. 340-53). Likewise, Simeon in the Chester 
Purification is bidden to sit expectans consolationem 
(1. 120) while Mary and Joseph are deciding the 
question of coming to the temple. And in the 
Nativity play of the same cycle Joseph must have 
been in his sedes and waiting for Mary before her 
arrival from Elizabeth's house (1. 120). And, 
finally, in the Coventry shearmen and tailors' play 
Mary must have remained in her locus while 
Joseph wandered away from home (11. 136-55). 
The author does not claim, of course, that an actor 
who kept his seat once remained in it always, nor 



CORPUS CHRISTI STAGING 167 

that all actors kept their scdcs all the time, but that 
the convention of the players remaining on the 
stage when not in action was a common one. 

Summary. In conclusion, then, and by way 
of summarizing some of the principles of Corpus 
Christi staging, the author seems justified in say- 
ing: (i) that the circumstances under which the 
processional plays developed and continued to be 
presented resulted in many incongruities; (2) that 
one of these incongruous elements was the use of 
the pageant- j^c/^ J ; (3) that the attempt which has 
been made in recent years to regard the pageant- 
wagon as the mere equivalent of a sedes or a locus, 
rather than as a stage, is founded on statements 
and records which have been misinterpreted; (4) 
that a careful examination of the plays of the pro- 
cessional cycles proves conclusively that they cannot 
have been staged according to this theory; and (5) 
that they show undoubted evidence on the contrary 
of simultaneous scenery and multiple representa- 
tion, with the pageant-car as a stage rather than as 
a sedes. 



VI 



CONVENTIONS OF THE CORPUS 
CHRISTI STAGE 

Introductory. In the preceding chapter some- 
thing has been shown of the use of simultaneous 
scenery on the Corpus Christi stage. That is to 
say, when the action of a play required different 
scenes, these scenes were located on pulpits, or 
sedes, set on the stage and raised somewhat above 
it, a separate sedes being employed for each place 
or house. Bethlehem, the temple at Jerusalem, and 
Simeon's home were all near to each other on the 
same platform, even though in the actual world they 
might be miles apart. The consciousness of the 
audience, however, kept these places separate and 
distinct, and for all the purposes of the dramatist 
these sedes sufficed to give a semblance of reality to 
the chief feature of the plays, the action. Scenery 
in the modern sense was unknown and undesired, 
since the purpose of the plays was not to make men 
see where an event in biblical history had happened, 
but to make them know intellectually and feel emo- 

168 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 169 

tionally what had occurred. The audience was not 
especially interested in the places or the scenery 
centering around Christ's life, but rather in the rep- 
resentation of his passion, his suffering, and his 
death. 

Symbolism. And yet, in order to present the 
events of the biblical narrative with any degree of 
clearness, a certain kind or amount of scenery was 
necessary. Heaven and hell, Bethlehem and 
Jerusalem, Calvary and the Mount of Olives must 
all be represented and yet be kept distinct from 
each other; and the only way to accomplish this, 
as the fifteenth and sixteenth century dramatists saw 
it, was through a continuation of the symbolic stage 
of the church and the cathedral, with one end of the 
platform for Bethlehem, the other for Jerusalem. 
Such a system of staging is in direct contradiction 
to the twentieth-century ideal of complete illusion 
in a staged scene, and to us of to-day seems in- 
congruous in the extreme, even absurd, since it is 
evident that no stage picture could have been at- 
tempted at all. And yet these elementary attempts 
at scenery seem to have been perfectly appropriate 
to the medieval mind. Medieval thought reveled in 
symbolism, and any symbolical technique in the 
drama was therefore in perfect conformity to the 
medieval habit of thinking. There was no inten- 
tion to make heaven and earth seem actually on the 
upper and lower stages ; there was only an attempt 
to furnish the audience with symbols of these two 



170 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

worlds. The customary habits of imagination on 
the part of the audience did the rest. Likewise, 
the green eyes, the gaping jaws, and the fiery 
smoke issuing from the dragon's head were sup- 
posed to be, not so much a representation as a 
symbol, of hell. And, similarly, the whole stage 
was incongruous but symbolical; but, with the in- 
terest of the audience centered in the action rather 
than in the scenery, this system of staging was en- 
tirely adequate for successful representation. 

Propertied " Plateae ". Another question pres- 
ents itself, however: If the representation of the 
temple in Jerusalem at one end of the stage and 
the home of Joseph at the other was symbolical, 
was the passage in between, the platea, the country, 
necessarily completely bare of scenery? Mr. Al- 
bright, in consequence of his theory that the 
pageant- wagon was only one of the sedes and that 
the platea was a fixed scaffold in the street, or else 
the street itself, finds himself driven to the infer- 
ence that the platea was entirely bare.^ But if the 
present writer has been able to interpret the plays 
and the guild account-books correctly, not only were 
both platea and sedes situated on the pageant- 
wagon, but the platea, as well as the sedes, was fur- 
nished with symbolical properties. 

Unlocated Elizabethan Scenes. Mr. G. F. 
Reynolds in an admirably sane and convincing 
paper on " Trees " on the Stage of Shakespeare 

1 A Typical Shakes per tan Stage, p. iv. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 171 

has shown that forests, wildernesses, and waste 
places generally were customarily represented on 
the Elizabethan stage by trees, only two or three 
being required. Mr. Reynolds says: "It [a for- 
est] was, of course, not so difficult to arrange as a 
forest-setting similarly constituted would be upon 
our modern stage. A few trees— one, two, three, 
five— were enough, for the convention of 'sym- 
bolic' scenery, by which one property suggested 
many, saved the Elizabethans much expense and 
trouble. It is therefore quite unnecessary to sup- 
pose that in a wood scene the ' trees ' covered any 
large part of the stage. Orlando Furioso, with half 
its action laid in the woods, must have had some 
open space for the other half. No one, indeed, 
could imagine the whole stage covered with trees. 
Two or three would have been quite sufficient."'^ 
These trees, Mr. Reynolds shows, were also used 
in the representation of the usual unlocated scenes ; 
that is, scenes that were not assigned to any definite 
place but which might have occurred anywhere. 
And in another paper « Mr. Reynolds has proved 
with equal conclusiveness that other properties than 
trees were to be found in these unlocated scenes, 
properties which, though present because needed in 
some other scene, were often really incongruous to 
the scene in progress and, consequently, were neces- 
sarily thought of as absent. 

'^Modern Philology, V. 162. ^.f j „ 

^Somc Principles of Elizabethan Staging, Modem 
Philology, June, 1905. 



172 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Hegge Plays. Likewise, it may be shown 
very easily that trees were uesd on the platea of 
the contemporary non-processional stage. For in- 
stance, in that part of the Hegge plays which rep- 
resents the journey of Joseph and Mary to 
Bethlehem, after they have started on their jour- 
ney, Mary stops and asks : 

Maria. A! my swete husbond, wolde je telle 
to me, 
What tre is gon standynge upon ^on hylle? 
Josephe. fforsothe, Mary, it is clepyd a chery 
tre; 
In tyme of jere je myght flfede jow theron 
jour fifylle. 
Maria. Turne ageyn, husbond, and behold 
30n tre. 
How that it blomyght now so swetly. 
Joseph. Cum on, Mary, that we worn at jon 
cyte ; 
Or ellys we may be blamyd, I telle jow 
lythly. 
Maria. Now, my spowse, I pray jow to 
behold, 
How the cheryes growyn upon gon tre; 
ffor to have therof ryght ffayn I wold. 
And it plesyd 50W to labore so meche for 
me.* 
Mary ends by getting her cherries, and the pair 
go on into the city. 
*Halliwell, Ludus CoventriT, pp. 145-6. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 173 

The incident, as may be seen, is unlocated; it 
occurred somewhere, anywhere between Jerusalem 
and Bethlehem; and yet a tree of some sort must 
have been on the plaiea; for the scene could not 
have been given without it. 

Likewise, later in the same play, in the part rep- 
resenting the adoration of the Magi, we have 
what seems to be this same tree used to symbolize 
a country scene again. Herod is boasting in his 
court and is sending out his steward to learn of any 
trouble in the land. — 

[Herod.] Sty ward bolde, 
Walke thou on mowlde, 
And wysely beholde 

Alle abowte; 
Iff any thynge 
Shuld greve the kynge, 
Brynge me tydydge [sic]. 

If there be ony dowte. 
Senescallus. Lord, kynge in crowne, 
I go fro towne. 
By bankys browne 

I wylle abyde ; 
And with erys lyste, 
Est and west, 
If any geste 

On grownde gynnyth glyde. 

Tunc ibit senescallus et obviabit 
tribus regibus et dicit eis 



174 CORPUS CHRISTl PAGEANTS 

Kynges iij., 
Undyr this tre, 
In this countre 

Why wylle je abyde?** 

The Hegge plays, one ought possibly to be re- 
minded, were not originally cut into the short, 
separate scenes as given by Halliwell, but the en- 
tire cycle was intended for presentation, apparently, 
in three successive days, or years. Hence the play 
of which this forms a part is to be taken as the 
same as the preceding one. So we apparently have 
the same tree for the country scene. And here 
again, it is noticeable, the scene is specifically in 
the country, anywhere, and hence unlocated; and 
the symbol of the country seems unquestionably to 
be this cherry tree. 

If, then, as Mr. Reynolds has conclusively 
shown, properties were used in unlocated scenes on 
the Elizabethan stage, and if they were required 
for similar scenes on the plateae of the non-proces- 
sional stage, does it not seem probable that such a 
convention might well have existed on the Corpus 
Christi stage ? And since the located scenes on the 
Corpus Christi stage were propertied and symbolic- 
ally represented, does it not seem that we have 
double reasons for expecting a similar propertied, 
symbolical representation of the unlocated scenes in 
the same plays? The answer cannot be otherwise 
than in the affirmative. 

5 Loc. cii., p. 164. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 175 

York "Joseph's Trouble". But, to turn from 
probabilities to facts, let us look at one or two of 
the Corpus Christi plays in which a propertied 
platea was actually needed. The York Joseph's 
Trouble about Mary is one of these. In this play, 
when Joseph finds his wife with child, he leaves 
her and goes off into the wilderness. And while 
wandering he falls into a monologue: — 

Jos. Nowe, lord God ! pat all ping may 
At thine owne will bothe do and dresse, 
Wisse me now som redy way 
To walk here in pis wildirnesse. — 11. 237-40. 

Then he falls asleep, and an angel tells him to re- 
turn to his wife. — 

Ang. Waken, Joseph ! and take bettir kepe 
To Marie, pat is pi felawe fest. 
Jos. A! I am full werie, lefe late me slepe, 
For-wandered and walked in pis forest. 

—11. 247-50. 

In this case we need some sort of representation 
of a wilderness for a proper understanding of the 
scene; and yet the scene, because of its being un- 
located, must have been presented on the platea. 

In like manner, in the corresponding play at 
Coventry, the weavers' pageant, when Joseph 
" gothe from Mare ", he says : 



176 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

[Josoff,] I wandur abowt myself alone, 
Turtulis or dowis can I non see. . . . 
Lord, benedissete ! Whatt make I here 
Among these heggis myself alone? 
For-were I ma no lengur stond ; 
These buskis the teyre me on eyuere syde. 

-11. 506-17. 

How are we to suppose that this field scene was 
presented ? Is it likely that the platea was bare and 
the wilderness only supposed to be there? Or is 
it more probable that a small bush or so, as on the 
Elizabethan stage, was used to symbolize this coun- 
try scene ? 

Paradise. A discussion of paradise does not 
properly belong here among the unlocated scenes, 
but, before going to the concluding and conclusive 
argument for the use of trees in country scenes, it 
may be well to look for a moment at a slight bit of 
evidence, the contemporary method of representing 
paradise scenes, which may cast some light on the 
problem before us. 

In the later Cornish Creation of the World the 
stage-directions state that paradise shall be indi- 
cated on the stage by having " ii f ayre trees in yt ", 
a " fowntaine ", and some **fyne flowers ". Note 
that only two trees are to be used in symbolizing 
paradise. At Norwich the grocers seem to have 
had only a single tree to represent their paradise 
scene.^ And at Beverley, if we may trust the list 
® Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, p. xxxii. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 177 

of what seem to have been all the properties for the 
Paradise play, we find paradise symbolized by a 
single tree. In 1 391, the entry from Beverley 
states, all the properties were handed over to one 
" John of Erghes, hayrer ", who promised " to re- 
deliver to the twelve Keepers of the town for the 
time being, at the end of his life, all necessaries 
which he has belonging to the said play under 
penalty of 20s., viz., one car (' karre '), eight hasps 
(' hespis '), eighteen staples (' stapils '), two visors 
('visers'), two angels' wings (' winges angeU'), 
one pine pole (' fir sparr '), one serpent C worme '), 
two pairs of linen boots, two pairs of shirts, one 
sword ".^ The car was, presumably, the pageant- 
car itself ; the hasps and the staples were to fasten 
the gate of paradise when Adam and Eve were 
driven out ; the visors, two pairs of shirts, and the 
linen boots were for them; the angel wore the 
wings and carried the sword to keep them out ; the 
* worme' was Satan's garb; and the 'fir sparr' 
was very probably decorated for the forbidden 
tree and used to symbolize paradise. 

As said above, a discussion of the method of 
representing paradise does not strictly belong here, 
but the fact that one or two trees symbolized the 
scenery in paradise shows clearly that one or two 
trees or bushes might just as well have symbolized 
the wilderness or the country scenes at York and 
Coventry. 

7 Hist. MSS Comm., Beverley MSS, p. 66. 



178 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

The Chester " Purification ". All the scenes so 
far noted require some sort of forest, or country, 
or garden scenery for a proper presentation and 
understanding of the play. The incidents could not 
have been clearly understood without such symbols, 
even in the unscenic Corpus Christi days. But in 
the Chester smiths' Purification play v^e have the 
use of trees for a country scene when there were 
none actually needed in the play. In the smiths' 
accounts for 1554 the following entry is found: 

1554. We gave for an apeyll tree to Ric. Bel founder, 
vid. ; For another apell tre to Ric. Hankey, iiiid. ; For 
Ropes, nelles, pyns, and thred, xd.; We gave to the 
porters of the Caryeg, iis.^ 

An examination of the smiths' Purification, how- 
ever, shows that no possible use could have been 
made of these trees except to represent the country 
between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. There are 
only two definitely located places in the play, the 
temple and Joseph's home, the one at Bethlehem, 
the other at Jerusalem ; and yet we have two trees 
bought and paid for by the company for use in the 
play. A cherry tree, probably not more than one, 
was needed to symbolize a country scene in the 
Hegge plays, as we have seen, and one or two trees 
were often used in unlocated scenes on the almost 
contemporary Elizabethan stage to symbolize the 

8 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 305 n. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 179 

country. What more probable use, then, could be 
made of the two trees bought by the smiths in 1554 
than for the unlocated country scene in their play 
of the Purification f 

Coventry " Harrowing of Hell ". But there is 
yet another use of an apple tree which has so far 
been unexplained. Sharp makes the following 
statement in his Dissertation on the Coventry 
Mysteries: 

Amongst the various items of Pageant expenditure by 
this Company [the cappers, who represented the events 
from the harrowing of hell through the Peregrinus play] 
are the following: — 

Item pd for a pece of tymber for an Apeltrie . ijs iijd 
Item pd for ij cloutes a clasp & other yron worke 

about pe Apeltre xijd 

which at first sight might lead to a conjecture that the 
history of the Fall was sometimes exhibited by them; but 
the ensuing stage direction and extract from the same 
subject in the Ludus Coventrias, will shew that Adam and 
Eve, though not particularized in the list of performers 
in the Cappers' Pageant (in consequence probably of these 
short and subordinate parts being taken by persons who 
had played other characters in an earlier portion of the 
Pageant) were nevertheless indispensable requisites, and 
the introduction of this appropriate and distinguishing 
symbol is thus readily accounted for. 

" Tunc dormyent milites & ueniet Anima Christi de 
inferno cum Adam et Euam. Abraham John baptist 
& Alijs. 



180 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Anima Christi. Come forthe Adam & Eue wt the 
And all my fryndys pt. her in be 
to paradys come forthe wt. me 
In blysse for to dwelle 
pe fende of helle pt is jor ffoo 
he xal be wrappyd & woundy' in woo 
Fro wo to welthe now xul je go 
Wt. myrthe evyr mor to melle.^ 



But such an interpretation of the use of the 
" Apeltrie " is exceedingly lame, especially when 
we notice that clouts and a clamp were bought to 
hold the tree in place on the stage. For if the tree 
were to symbolize Adam and Eve, which is itself 
very improbable, it would naturally be carried with 
them when they went out of hell, which could not 
have been done with the tree clamped to the floor 
of the stage. 

On the contrary, there is possible another and a 
far more likely use for the tree. The account 
given by Sharp is not dated, but it is noticeable that 
the next entry that he mentions is " the payment 
of 13d. in 1540 * for the matter of pe castell of 
emaus ' ". But this scene involving the castle of 
Emmaus is the well-known Peregrinus play, in 
which Christ appears to Luke and Cleophas on the 
road to Emmaus. Hence a country scene is needed, 
and from the mere matter of the relative arrange- 
ment of the material as given in Sharp it would seem 
that the tree must have been used for this incident 

9 p. 46. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 181 

in the Peregrlnus part of the play. We have not 
yet found the Coventry cappers' play, of course, 
but in all the other cycles from Chester, Wakefield, 
York, and in the so-called Ludus Coventrics, the 
Peregrinus play begins with the country scene on 
the road to the castle of Emmaus. Hence it seems 
fair to infer that this " Apeltrie " was intended to 
be used on the platea as a symbol of the country 
near Emmaus. 

Unlocated Scenes. Such a theory as this of 
properties in the unlocated scenes does not seem 
improbable or unreal. On the contrary, it seems 
that some such staging as this would be the natural 
thing. If the located scenes were symbolically rep- 
resented and decorated, why should the unlocated 
ones, simply because they were on the platea,^ stand 
bare of all ornamentation? The author is not 
aware of any further examples of trees specifically 
mentioned in unlocated scenes, but numerous other 
instances are to be found of properties on the 
platea. One or two citations will perhaps suffice. 
Towneley " Jacob ". The Towneley Jacob con- 
cerns itself with the meeting of Jacob and Esau, and 
begins with Jacob on the way home and praying 
God to be his guide " in the right way to mesopo- 
tameam ". Then he says : 

The son is downe, what is best? 
her purpose I all nyght to rest ; 
Vnder my hede this ston shall ly ; 
A nyghtis rest take will I.— 11. 9-12. 



182 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

God appears to him In his sleep and blesses him, 
and he awakes and sets up the stone in praise of 
God.— 

lord, how dredfuU is this stede! 
Ther I layde downe my hede, 
In godis lovyng I rayse this stone, 
And oyll wil I putt theron. — 11. 41-44. 

Here then we have a stone, which could not have 
been an imaginary one, used in a scene that was 
supposed to occur anywhere between Padan-aran 
and Mesopotamia, This scene was unlocated, too, 
and yet had at least one property in it. 

In the same way the burning bush in the York 
and Towneley Children of Israel plays must have 
been on the platea; in the Second Shepherds Play 
at Wakefield there must have been a real represen- 
tation of sheep, so that Mak might steal one and 
run away; and in the Offering of the Magi at 
Wakefield a litter of some kind was on the platea 
between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. This last is so 
clearly a use of a property in an unlocated scene 
that it may be well to explain it a little more fully. 
The three Magi have just come from making their 
offerings at Bethlehem: — 

primus rex. A, lordyngys dere! the sothe to 

say, 
we haue made a good lornay; . . . 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 183 

ijus rex. lordyngys, we haue traueld lang, 
And restyd haue we lytyll emang, 
ffor-thi I red now, or we gang, 

with all oure mayn 
et vs fownde a slepe to fang; 

Then were I fayn; 
ffor in greatt stowres we haue ben sted. 
lo, here a lytter redy cled. 
iijus rex. I loue my lord ! we haue well sped, 

To rest with wyn ; 
lordyngys, syn we shall go to bed, 

ye shall begyn.— 11. 577-594- 

Here we have a litter, an entirely incongruous prop- 
erty, on the road between Bethlehem and Jerusalem. 
The reason for its presence is entirely clear: the 
Magi could not lie down by the roadside and see 
visions as the ordinary actor could; their clothes 
were too costly and could not be soiled with dirt 
and dust ; so a litter had to be prepared, incongruous 
as it was, on which they might rest while hearing 
the angel tell them not to go back to Herod. 

Summary. Here then are the facts. The Eliza- 
bethan theatre and the non-processional stages, 
both of which were contemporary with the Cor- 
pus Christi plays, used trees, one or two, to rep- 
resent forests and the country in unlocated scenes, 
and the Elizabethan stage used many other heavy 
properties in unlocated scenes, properties which 
were not only incongl■uGL:^, LliL oLten impeding to 



184 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

the action of the play. There is no reason for be- 
heving this incongruous convention an innovation 
on the part of the EHzabethans. Likewise, on the 
Corpus Christi stage many scenes are to be found 
which are unlocated and yet which demand, abso- 
lutely necessitate, trees and other properties on the 
platea; and there are unlocated country scenes in 
which trees are not absolutely needed, but for 
which the guild account-books seem to show that 
trees were bought. Then, since symbolism was a 
characteristic of the Corpus Christi stage, since the 
regular sedes were decorated to symbolize certain 
places, since the Garden of Eden scenes were sym- 
bolized by one or two trees, since trees and other 
properties were used in unlocated scenes on the 
Elizabethan stage, since trees and other properties 
were necessitated in unlocated scenes on the Corpus 
Christi stage, and since trees were bought for plays 
in which we can find no other use than for un- 
located country scenes, it seems conclusive that the 
platea as well as the sedes on the Corpus Christi 
stage was sometimes decorated, that the platea 
decorations were symbolical like the others, and 
that in country scenes trees were a part of the 
symbolical decorations. 

Symbolical Distance. The symbolism, how- 
ever, did not cease here. Just as definite houses 
and temples were symbolized by the sedes, so by 
means of a similar exercise of the imagination great 
distances and large spaces were symbolized by these 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 185 

country scenes on the platea, or, indeed, by the 
mere platea itself. In the York Abraham's Sac- 
rifice of Isaac, for instance, the distance from 
Abraham's home to the Land of Vision is so great 
that it will take three days to make the journey; 
and yet the party arrive there in the time taken to 
repeat thirty-five lines. Similarly, in the Coventry 
shearmen and tailors' pageant Joseph speaks of the 
distance between Nazareth and Bethlehem as being 
three leagues; and yet he arrives in twelve lines' 
time. 

And in the Chester Resurrection, when the three 
Maries have visited the tomb of Christ, the stage- 
direction states: Tunc discedent et paidisper cir- 
cumamhulahunt, et tunc obvient discipulis Petro 
et Johanni. And after the disciples have been in- 
formed of the supposed theft of Christ's body, 
Peter says: 

Abyde, brother, sweete John, 
Leste we meete with anye foniie ; 
But nowe I se no other wonne, 
To ronne I will assaye. 
Tunc ambo simid concurrent, sed Johannes 
procurret citius Petro, et non intrant sep- 
ulchrum. 

These plateae, then, it should be remembered, 
though representing unlocated scenes and being per- 
haps often undecorated, were symbolical of great 



186 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

distances and were just as important in the stage 
presentation as were the sedes. 

Symbolical Numbers. Another notable sym- 
boHc convention on the Corpus Christi stage was 
that of making a few persons represent many. This 
custom would probably not seem so absurd to us 
of to-day if it had not been carried to such an ex- 
treme length at the time. For example, in the 
Chester Slaughter of the Innocents only two chil- 
dren are actually represented as slain on the stage, 
whereas Herod tells the two soldiers they will 
have " a thowsand and yet moe " to kill. And in 
the Wakefield Herod the Great, which corresponds 
to the Chester Slaughter of the Innocents, only 
three children are killed by as many soldiers, who 
return to Herod and boast of having slain many 
thousands. — 

We haue mayde rydyng thrugh outt lure: 
well wytt ye oone thyng that mordered haue we 
Many thowsandys. — 11. 417-19. 

And a little later Herod states that the number slain 
was 144,000. — 

A hundreth thowsand, I watt and fourty ar 

slayn. 
And four thowsand; ther-at me aght to be 

fayn.— 11. 487-8. 

Likewise two demons represent the host of fallen 
angels in the Towneley Creation and Fall and two 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 187 

persons the entire tribe of Israel in the subsequent 
Pharaoh play. And at Chester three saved souls 
and six damned ones represented all the world come 
to judgment in the Doomsday play, while at York 
there were only two of each kind. 

Time Symbolism. In both of the preceding 
conventions, where a distance of a few feet is used 
to represent as many miles and where one person 
may symbolize a hundred or a thousand, the usage 
would seem to have been due, partly at least, to the 
necessary limitations of space on the meagre Cor- 
pus Christi stage ; but in the next convention, time 
symbolism, the usage can be attributed only to a 
lack of realization on the part of the authors of the 
requirements and limitations of their stages. In 
the Chester Creation, for instance, we can forgive 
the dramatist for allowing an upper stage to repre- 
sent heaven and a lower one paradise and the world 
at large, since each sedes is kept distinct and 
separate and there seems a reason for the methods 
employed, but it seems the height of crudity and in- 
congruity to represent the creation of Adam and 
Eve, the expulsion from the garden of Eden, and 
Cain and Abel at the age of " XXX yeare ", all 
within the compass of one continuous scene. To 
us of to-day the custom would seem more reason- 
able if there were any break in the scenes to in- 
dicate the passage of time ; but there is none. 

In the same way it is difficult for us of to-day to 
conceive of the Chester dramatist's daring in repre- 



188 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

senting the forty days in the wilderness by a single 
continuous scene of perhaps ten minutes length. 
The same crudity, however, is to be found in the 
plays of all the cycles. In the Wakefield Noah and 
the Ark, for instance, a space of '* thre hundreth 
dayes and fyfty " is supposed to elapse within the 
time taken to quote forty-five lines, and in the cor- 
responding play of the York cycle Noah says, " A 
hundereth wyntres away is wente, sen I began pis 
werk ", when the audience in almost as many sec- 
onds has lived through the whole performance. 
And at Chester the incongruity is even more care- 
fully presented. Here Noah says, 

A loo wynters and 20 

this shipp making taried haue I, 

where the audience has sat through the whole per- 
formance and seen that the ark has not been erected 
on the stage at all, but that he has only been tinker- 
ing with a ready-built boat, pretending he was mak- 
ing \t}^ The stage-direction now reads: Then 

10 Perhaps attention may be called here to the corre- 
sponding York play, where the ark may have been put to- 
gether by Noah in the presence of the audience. Some- 
thing of his method is indicated by his measuring his 
board, hewing it even, and joining it to the other parts of 
the boat "with a gynn ", that is, a catch. In other words, 
the various parts of the ark were all made ready ahead of 
time and fixed with catches so that the actor must merely 
lay the boards together and by means of catches, " gynns", . 
put the ark together in a few minutes. And no doubt at 
the rehearsals one of the chief things this actor had to be 
sure of was that of being able to put these parts together 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 189 

Noah shall efiter the ark, and his family shall name 
and recite all the animals whose pictures are drawn 
on the boards. And after each one has spoken his 
part he shall go into the ark, the wife of Noah ex- 
cepted. And the animals depicted must agree with 
the names given them. Then a little further on the 
direction is given: Then Noah shall shut the win- 
dow of the ark and for a Utile while in the house 
they shall sing the psalm, " Save mee o God ". And 
opening the window and looking ahout,'^^ Noah 
shall say, " Now 40 days are fullie gone ", etc. He 
even emphasizes his forty days by saying they are 
" fullie " gone. Such crudities are commonly in- 
cluded among the symbolical elements in the Corpus 
Christi drama, but to the present writer, after a 
rather extended study of the plays, they seem 
rather to indicate ignorance of the possibilities and 
limitations of the processional pageants. These 
crudities, however, are their worst; and from these 
we may continue looking at some of their other 
conventions, comic, symbolic, and otherwise. 

Anachronisms. Along with their crudities it 
may not be uninteresting to note some of the 

easily. Then when the play was over, and while the 
paseant was moving to the next station, Noah busied him- 
self with taking down the ark he had just put up, arrang- 
ing the boards carefully in their places, and geUing ready 
to erect the ark again at the next station. 1/, this was the 
case, however, it was the exception rather than the rule, 
for the general custom, as at Chester, was to bring a 
ready-made ark and only seem to work on it. 

11 The author's translation from the Latin following 11. 
160 and 256. 



190 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

anachronisms so common in these plays. It is 
rather comic, for instance, to find Noah's wife at 
Chester swearing " Be Christe ! " and old Noah 
himself " by Sante John ! " In the Wakefield 
Killing of Abel, too, Cain has a servant, a garcio, 
whom he orders about with considerable fierceness ; 
but it never seems to have occurred to the author of 
the play that this boy, historically, must have been 
a very near relative of Cain's. There are also 
bailies, who, Cain fears, will catch him if they hear 
of his murder of Abel. And a little later in the 
same cycle we find Pharaoh recommending prayer 
to Mahowne, Augustus Caesar and Pilate swear- 
ing by Mahowne, Herod calling him a saint; 
Caiaphas singing mass, and Pilate bribing his 
soldiers with English money, iio,ooo, to say that 

" Ten thowsand men of good aray " came and 
stole the body of Jesus away from them. Like- 
wise, in none of the cycles does it appear to have 
been out of place, for instance in the Wakefield 
Prophet play, to make Moses, David, Daniel, and 
probably others, all appear on the same stage to- 
gether.^2 The whole object seems to have been 
to represent the scenes as the dramatist saw them, 
and it seems never to have occurred to the players 
that their view might be anachronistic in any way 
whatever. 

Rotation Speeches. A further evidence of the 

crudity of the Corpus Christi stage may be seen in 

12 The subject of anachronisms in costuming will be dis- 
cussed later, p. 219. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 191 

the rotation speeches of the actors. In other words, 
when there were several characters in a scene and all 
were on the stage at once, it was the rule rather than 
the exception that each actor should speak in regular 
order, no matter whether his speech was necessary 
to the thought or the action or not. An excellent 
illustration of this convention is to be seen in the 
seventh Chester play, the Adoration of the Shep- 
herds, where the three shepherds and the boy talk 
together. Before the boy comes on the stage the 
rotation is regularly: first shepherd, second shep- 
herd, third shepherd, first shepherd, second shep- 
herd, third shepherd, and so on ; but after the boy 
enters he breaks into the conversation and the rota- 
tion now becomes : first shepherd, second shep- 
herd, third shepherd, boy, etc. Nor is this crude 
stiff convention common to the Chester plays 
only; it is to be found in those of all the cycles. 

Monologues. Another convention equally 
crude is to be found in the constant use of the 
monologue. This usage seems to have been for 
various purposes: as an aid to the scenery, to give 
the setting of the play, to tell its purpose, and some- 
times for the sole reason of theological moralizing. 
Very seldom does it seem like the natural and un- 
forced soliloquy that a player would naturally 
think to himself. On the contrary, it usually has all 
the ear-marks of didacticism, of being composed 
for the enlightenment of the audience along some 
particular line. John the Baptist's soliloquy at the 



192 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

beginning of the York Baptism of Jesus is such a 
one, its purpose being not only to give the setting 
of the play, but to preach the need of baptism and a 
holy life. And it is noticeable in this preliminary 
speech of John the Baptist's that he soon forgets he 
is an impersonator of the forerunner of Christ ; he 
becomes a preacher of the fourteenth century, giv- 
ing up his part as an actor for the moment and 
addressing himself to " bothe v^iffe and man " in 
the audience before him, in a purposed attempt to 
make them " be clene in levyng ". 

Direct Address to the Audience. This use of 
the direct address always v^eakens the dramatic 
force of the play, since it throws the listener sud- 
denly from the world of fancy to that of reality; 
but it is found very commonly among the Corpus 
Christi plays. Usually it is in the form of an ex- 
hortation to the audience, as in the case of John the 
Baptist's sermon ; but often it takes the form of a 
prayer in which the audience is addressed directly 
and is warned of the wrath to come. On the other 
hand, its purpose is often purely structural, as a 
sort of prologue or epilogue to the play. The 
demon who comes to carry off Herod's soul to hell 
in the Chester Slaughter of the Innocents is a good 
example of the address of warning. He addresses 
himself to the audience in general and to all tap- 
sters in particular: — 

No more shall you, Tapstars, by my lewty, 
that fills ther measures falcly, 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 193 

shall bear this lord Company; 

The gett none other grace. 

I will bringe this [Herod's body] into woe, 

And come agayne and fetch moe, 

as fast as ever I may goe. 

farewell and haue good day! — 11. 449-456. 

Direct addresses to the audiences at the close of 
plays, good-byes so to speak, were usually spoken 
by one of the actors, though occasionally the parts 
were given to regular epilogues, as in the Chester 
Balaam and Balak, or the Brome Abraham and 
Isaac. When such addresses came at the begin- 
ning of the scenes they were usually spoken by the 
principal actor and served a treble purpose, to pres- 
ent the actor, to furnish the setting, and to tell the 
purpose of the play. In this way Abraham comes 
in at the beginning of the Wakefield play of that 
name and for a space of fifty lines soliloquizes on 
Adam's sin, Cain's crime, Noah and Lot, and, 
finally, on himself, his age, etc. And by the time 
his monologue is finished he has given us the whole 
setting and purpose of the play and has introduced 
himself, the main actor. And in the Temptation of 
Jesus at York the part of the Devil in the first fifty 
lines is plainly to give the setting and the motif of 
the play, though the Devil in this case does not 
happen to be the main actor. 

Prayers. Another similar device for opening 
the play and for giving the setting, etc. was in the 



194 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

use of formal prayers at the beginning of scenes. 
Simeon's opening speech in the Chester Purifica- 
tion is one instance of this convention, and Noah's 
at the beginning of the Wakefield Noah and the 
Ark another. In the latter, Noah begins by prais- 
ing God for his work of creation, by recalling the 
creation of the angels, the fall of Lucifer, and the 
creation of Adam and Eve and their fall. By this 
time, how^ever, he has forgotten that he is praying 
to God and now speaks of Him in the third per- 
son. He tells how everybody now living sins 
boldly, how he dreads God's vengeance, and how 
he himself is growing old ; then he falls back into 
his original prayer to God, calling on him for 
mercy, and so ends his praying. But it is evident 
that the whole has been given purely for the sake 
of introducing the play and the principal actor. 

Actors Kneeling in Prayer. It would be in- 
teresting to know whether Noah and the other 
actors in these prayer incidents were regularly on 
their knees or not. The stage-directions give no 
evidence in these cases, but it is probable that they 
were, since in other instances the players are def- 
initely bidden to kneel. For example, in the 
Chester Adoration of the Magi, when the three 
kings pray for the fulfillment of Balaam's prophecy 
of a Savior to come, the direction states : Tunc 
Reges iterum genua flectunt}^ Yet in the first 
prayer no direction at all has been given for the 

13 Deimling. Chester Plays, p. 163. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 195 

kneeling of the actors. And in the Emission of the 
Holy Ghost in the same cycle a similar direction is 
given to the apostles: Tunc omnes apostoli genu 
flectent}^ Such examples, no matter how many 
might be given, would not prove the usage a uni- 
versal one, but they show at least that the custom 
of actors kneeling in prayer on the stage was pos- 
sibly a common one. 

Prologue. Another method still of introduc- 
ing a scene or play was through the usual prologue 
so well known to audiences in later Elizabethan 
days. The Chester barbers in their play of Abra- 
ham ayid Melchisedech and Lot had a prologue in 
the guise of a nuntius named *' Gobet on the grene ". 
Apparently he called the audience to order, an- 
nounced the play and its purpose, and retired as 
Abraham came forward. In the Towneley Killing 
of Abel a Garcio served as the prologue and intro- 
duced the audience to his master Cain; and in the 
Herod the Great of the same cycle the prologue 
was a nuncius, who performed the same office for 
his master Herod and gave at the same time the 
setting of the play. And at Norwich in the Fall 
of Man scene the prologue had two different 
speeches to say, one to be used when no pageants 
preceded that scene and another when the custom- 
ary Creation and Fall play went first. The part 
seems to have been regarded as of minor import- 
ance, however, since the speaker's fee for his serv- 

1* Wright, Chester Plays, p. 124. 



/ 



196 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

ices was small in proportion to what the better 
actors received. At Coventry Sharp notes 2d, 
" paid to Jorge loe for spekynge pe prologe " and 
4J. on two other occasions. 

Music with the Plays. Along with the pro- 
logues and epilogues may be noted the employment 
of professional minstrels, who are often bidden to 
strike up at the conclusion or in the midst of the 
scenes. There is no evidence of any regular 
" musical accompaniment to the dialogue of the 
existing plays, which was spoken, and not, like that 
of their liturgical forerunners, chanted ".^^ Music, 
however, seems to have been a frequent accom- 
paniment and to have been employed with no little 
dramatic effect in all the plays, its function being 
to heighten the action and to add a touch of 
dramatic seriousness to the exalted portions. For 
example, in the Chester drapers' Creation and Fall 
the stage-directions require the minstrels to play 
when God brings Adam into Paradise, while He 
is talking to the guilty pair after they have eaten 
of the forbidden fruit, while they are being driven 
out of Eden, and during Adam's following lament. 
It is noticeable in all these instances that the addi- 
tion of the music is made at just the dramatic mo- 
ment and when the softened strains from the in- 
struments would tend to throw a glamor of serious- 
ness over the crucial action. A very similar use of 
the violin and other stringed instruments is to be 
seen in the drama of to-day. 

"Chambers, Mediaeval Stage, ii. 140. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 197 

Songs and Antiphons. Not always, however, 
was the music Hmited to the instrumental entirely. 
On the contrary, vocal selections were given with 
equal frequency, and choristers from the neighbor- 
ing churches engaged to sing them. Numerous en- 
tries of payments to the " clarkys for syngyng^' 
are to be found from time to time in the guild ac- 
counts, and their songs and antiphons seem to have 
been introduced and used much in the same way as 
the instrumental selections. Oftentimes they were 
newly written for the occasion and were sung by 
the actors, assisted at times by outsiders, at some 
special point in the play. One of the most beauti- 
ful and effective of these must have been the lullaby 
of the two mothers in the pageant of the shearmen 
and tailors at Coventry. This is the one intro- 
duced into the play just before the killing of the 
children. Herod has ordered the slaughter of all 
children under two years of age ; Mary and Joseph 
have escaped into Egypt with their child ; and the 
two mothers come in singing: — 

Lully, lulla, thow littell tine child, 

By by, lully lullay, ihow littell tyne child, 

By by, lully lullay! 
O sisters too. 
How may we do 

For to preserve this day 
This pore yongling 
For whom we do singe 

By by, lully lullay? 



198 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Herod, the king, 
In his raging, 

Chargid he hath this day 

His men of might 
In his owne sight 

All yonge children to slay, — 

That wo is me, 
Pore child, for thee. 

And ever morne and may 
For thi parting 
Nether say nor singe. 

By by, lully luUay.^^ 

One can imagine how effective this song must 
have been, with the slaughter of the two children to 
come next. It must have been a late addition, 
however, as were the others in this and the weavers' 
plays. All of them smack of the Elizabethan days 
and are in striking contrast to the soberer ritualistic 
antiphons more frequent in the other cycles. The 
songs of the angel before and after the annunciation 
to Mary in the York spicers* scene is an example of 
the usual antiphonal music in these plays. The 
Dignus Dei noted in the margin of the Chester Fall 
of Lucifer, ^'^ the Gloria in Excelsis sung by the 
angels in the Coventry and Chester plays of the 
Adoration of the Shepherds,^^ and numerous other 

16 Craig, Two Coventry Corpus Christi Plays, p. 32. 
I'' Deimling, Chester Plays, p. 12 n. 
18 Deimling, Chester Plays, p. 147; Craig, Two Coventry 
Corpus Christi Plays, p. 9. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 199 

such responses scattered at intervals through the 
plays were evidently taken from the offices of the 
church ; and one would like to think that all the 
sequences sung by the choir boys in the plays were 
of the same origin, though a careful examination 
of the responses shows that this was not so. Often- 
times they came directly from the offices of the 
church, but almost as frequently they seem to be 
only faint echoes of musical and biblical themes 
well known in the church services. ^^ They were 
rendered by singers from the neighboring monas- 
teries and cathedrals, even though these choristers 
had no further connection with the plays. A note 
in the Chester Adoration of the Shepherds directs: 
Tunc oinnes pastores cum aliis adiuvantibus canta- 
bunt hilare carmen. And numerous entries of pay- 
ments to church choristers for aiding in the plays 
are to be found from time to time in the guild 
account-books. 

Non-Speaking Characters. Where the choris- 
ters and musicians sat and how they were regarded 
in the scenes it seems impossible to tell. In some 
cases they seem to have been one and the same 
with the angels, and as such would probably sit on 
the upper stage of the processional pageant- 
wagons; but where they were outside characters 
entirely, and, as at Chester, merely aiding the 
angels in their songs, it seems impossible to say 
what disposition was made of them when not sing- 
is Smith, York Plays, p. 525. 



200 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

ing. The same problem arises with regard to other 
non-speaking characters in the scenes. In the 
Towneley Jacob, for instance, there were evidently 
characters in the play who did not speak ; for in the 
MS as it has come down to us Jacob in going to 
meet Esau divides his household into three divi- 
sions, putting Rachel, Joseph, and Benjamin in 
the last division, himself bringing up the rear. 
Joseph and Benjamin never speak, however: and 
Esua addresses his men, bidding them hold their 
hands and refrain from fighting; yet they never 
reply in any way nor give any evidence of their 
presence on the stage. 

Exits. On the contrary, it may be possible 
that these singers and silent characters boldly and 
openly walked off the stage when not needed in the 
scenes, and on when wanted, and that they were 
loafing through the audience and being eyed by 
every small boy in the crowd when not engaged in 
the action. Almost no evidence at all is to be had 
from the MSS of the processional plays, but it 
would seem that some much arrangement as this 
might well be implied from the speech of the 
epilogue after the killing of the children in the 
Digby Slaughter of the Innocents: — 

wherfor now, ye virgynes, er we go hens, 
with all your cumpany, you goodly avaunce, 
Also ye menstralles doth your diligens, 
A-fore our departyng geve vs a daunce. — 11. 

563-66. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 201 

From this one might infer that the dancers and the 
musicians on the stationary stage were regarded as 
entirely separate from the play and that they now 
came forward, possibly from somewhere in the 
crowd, to entertain the audience for a few moments 
before it dispersed. And it may be that some such 
disposition as this was made of the regular players 
on the processional stage. We have seen above 
that actors very often kept their seats in their 
respective stages when not occupied in a scene, but 
it is also true that they frequently left the stage al- 
together. In the Coventry pageant of the Nativity 
and Slaughter of the Innocents, after the annuncia- 
tion to Mary by the angel, we have the stage-direc- 
tion. Here the angell de party th, and Joseff citmyth 
in, indicating plainly that Gabriel has gone off the 
stage entirely. And so later the direction states 
that Mare and Josoff goth awey cleyne. In such 
cases, if there were a lower platform used as a 
dressing room, these actors might easily exit there, 
but in those pageants where the upper stage was 
used as heaven and the lower one for earth, it 
seems that players must of necessity have gone 
either among the audience or else under the wagon. 
Means of Exit. These exits were apparently 
made by means of ladders. At least in the Coven- 
try drapers' accounts for the production of their 
Doomsday play we have notices of payments for a 
ladder and for " fetchyng and kepyng ".^° In the 

20 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 74. 



202 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

case, however, of the exits of Christ, God, angels, 
etc. from the upper stage to the lower, or vice 
versa, the descending and ascending seems to have 
been accomplished by means of a windlass. Sharp 
prints accounts for windlasses, windlass ropes, a 
locker for the windlass, and for men to keep the 
windlasses ; and he remarks that this was a " cus- 
tomary and necessary appendage to the Pageant 
vehicles, and that it was placed in the lower room 
or floor ".-^ It was by this method no doubt that 
Christ in the York tailors' pageant of the Ascen- 
sion was swept up to heaven when he prayed : — 

Send doune a clowde, f adir ! for-thy 
I come to pe, my fadir deere.^^ 

Feigned Sleep. What seems to have been a 
definite attempt, however, on the part of the Corpus 
Christi dramatists to avoid the necessity of exits 
on the one hand and, on the other, to supply the 
need of curtains of which they were as yet ignorant, 
was the use of the device of putting an actor to 
sleep when he must necessarily drop out of the ac- 
tion. That is, while one scene in a play was being 
enacted, it was often customary for the actors in 
the preceding one, instead of leaving the stage, to 
pretend to be asleep. An example is to be had in 
the York bowers and fletchers' play of Peter's 

21 Loc. cit., p. 72. Compare also pp. 47 and 68. 

22 Smith, York Plays, p. 461, 11. 175-6. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 203 

Denial of Jesus. The play opens with a dialogue 
between Annas and Caiaphas, who are awaiting the 
arrival of the soldiers that have been sent to arrest 
Christ. Night comes, however, before they arrive ; 
Annas apparently returns to his own sedes; and 
Caiaphas goes to sleep, leaving two of his soldiers 
on guard. At this point the scene shifts to the other 
end of the stage, where Peter denies his Lord to two 
women and where Christ enters between two 
soldiers a moment later to remind the guilty dis- 
ciple of his broken vow. The soldiers carry Jesus 
to Caiaphas's house, but have to wait outside for 
him to be wakened before the trial can begin. 
When he is finally aroused, however, he calls Annas 
over, they take their seats in court, the guardsmen 
announce to the captors of Christ that they may 
enter, and the trial begins. It is evident, however, 
that the whole matter of Caiaphas's feigned sleep 
has been only a slender device for shifting the scene 
from his sedes to that where Peter denies Christ. 

Visions. Another device very similar to that 
of feigning sleep for the sake of shifting the scenes 
is that of pretending sleep for the sake of some 
vision necessary to the plot of the play. In com- 
pliance with this custom it is amusing to watch 
the crude excuses devised by the players, usually 
the principal actors, for lying down to rest or to 
sleep in order that an angel or a vision may appear. 
Joseph becomes so worried over his trouble about 
Mary that he must of necessity lie down to sleep 



204 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

in the wilderness, where an angel tells him the 
child is of the Holy Ghost; the three kings on 
their way to Jerusalem become strangely sleepy all 
at once and lie down upon a ready prepared litter 
by the roadside, where an angel from heaven tells 
them not to return to Herod; and Thomas rests 
himself on a bank in the Vale of Jehoshaphat, 
where he sees the Virgin in a vision and hears her 
angels singing before her. Such were the com- 
monly accepted methods, crude though they be, of 
representing visions, — by having one actor feign 
sleep and another in the garb of an angel come to 
him and deliver some message from God. 

The Crucifixion. Perhaps other devices which 
ought to be mentioned before closing this chapter 
are those used in the famous crucifixion scenes. 
Something of an idea of the jugglery made use of 
in the would-be realistic representation of the 
wound in Christ's side may be had from Christ's 
words in the Chester Doomsday pageant. The 
scene is doomsday and Christ is talking. He has 
died for the world and has shed his blood for man- 
kind, but he will go further and shed still more. — 

Nowe that you shall appeartlye see, 
Freshe blood blede for thee. 
Good to joye and full greate lee, 
Evill to damnacion, 
Behoulde nowe all men on me 
And se my blood freshe out flye. 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 205 

That I blede on roode tree 

For your salvacion. 

Then let him spout blood from his side}^ 

In the crucifixion scenes as well the blood was 
made to flow from the Savior's side, a piece of 
jugglery which was accomplished probably by 
pricking some kind of small leather bag concealed 
on the person of the player. We have no references 
to this precise scene for the use of this device, but 
from two other certain instances of the same usage 
we are able to learn the method with a fair degree 
of certainty. For instance, in Preston's Cambises 
(licensed 1569), when Cruelty and Murder catch 
Lord Smirdis and " Strike him in divers places ", 
the stage-direction is added: A little bladder of 
vineger prickt. Then Cruelty says: ** Beholde, 
now his blood springs out on the ground ! " Like- 
wise, in the Canterbury Marching Watch (July 
11), the townsmen used to enact the murder of St. 
Thomas k Becket, the patron saint of the city ; and 
the semblance of blood on the martyr's body was 
made there by means of real blood carried in little 
leather bags, as may be seen from the following 
entries in the town documents: 

[1504.] It. paied for ij baggs of leder to Gylliam xviijd 

[1507.] Pro le gettyng sanguynem iiijd 

[1512.] For a payer of new gloues for Seynt Thomas jd 

[1529.] For a new leder bag for the blode ^^ . . vjd 

23 Wright. Chester Plays, ii. 191. 

2* Sheppard in Archaeologia Cantiana, xii. 36-7. 



206 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

From these entries and from the fact that a 
semblance of blood was necessitated in the cruci- 
fixion scenes one may readily conceive of the de- 
vice that was employed. The actual crucifixion, 
the suspension on the cross, must of course have 
been represented by tying Christ to the cross, as we 
are frankly told in the stage-directions was the 
method in the Chester play of that name. Judas 
probably was hanged as in some of the melo- 
dramatic theatrical performances of to-day, by 
running straps under his shoulders and fastening 
the gallows rope to these. Sharp prints the follow- 
ing entries with reference to the execution of these 
two characters: 

[I573-] — P^' to Fawston for hangyng Judas . . iiijd 
pd. to Fawston for Coc croyng . . . iiijd 

1576.— ff or the gybbyt of Je^ie xviijd 

1577. — ffor a lase [beam(?)] for Judas & a 

corde iijd 

1578. — pd for a trwse for Judas . . . . ijs viijd 
pd for a newe hoke to hange Judas -5 . . vjd 

These two characters, Christ and Judas, were 
important ones in the early religious drama and 
their execution marked perhaps the climax of each 
cycle. The strain on them nervously and physic- 
ally must have been terrific, so terrific that some- 
times they were completely overcome. We hear 
from an old French writer, for instance, of actors 

25 Coventry Mysteries, pp. 36-7. 



i 



CORPUS CHRISTI CONVENTIONS 207 

in the Passion at Veximiel, France, almost dying 
under the exertion. " In the year 1437, on the 3rd 
of July ", the chronicler relates, " was represented 
the game or play, de la Passion, N. S. in the plain 
of Veximiel, when the park was arranged in a 
very noble manner, for there were nine ranges of 
seats in height rising by degrees; all around and 
behind were great and long seats for the lords and 
ladies. To represent God was the Lord NicoUe, 
Lord of Neufchatel, in Lorraine, who was curate 
of St. Victor of Metz ; he was nigh dead upon the 
cross if he had not been assisted, and it was deter- 
mined that another priest should be placed on the 
cross to counterfeit the personage of the crucifixion 
for that day; but on the following day the said 
curate St. Victor counterfeited the resurrection, 
and performed his part very highly during the 
play. Another priest, who was called Messire 
Jean de Nicey, and was chaplain of Metrange, 
played Judas, and was nearly dead while hanging, 
for his heart failed him, wherefore he was very 
quickly unhung and carried off: and there the 
Mouth of Hell was very well done ; for it opened 
and shut when the devils required to enter and 
come out, and had two large eyes of steel." ^^^ 

Conclusion. In conclusion, it may be said of 
the dramatic conventions of the Corpus Christi 
stage that they were symbolical in many respects, 
but crude and incongruous on the whole. In the 

26 Hone. Ancient Mysteries, pp. 172-3. 



208 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

same way that the sedes were symbolical representa- 
tions of houses, temples, and towns, so the plateae 
were decorated to represent country scenes and were 
at the same time symbolical of greater or less dis- 
tances. Nor did the symbolism cease here. One or 
two people were often used to represent hundreds 
and thousands, and a few moments of time sym- 
bolized days and years. Similarly the customs 
and conventions governing the actors on the stage 
were crude, stiff, and incongruous. The audience 
was often addressed and preached to by an actor; 
prayers were used as crude devices for introduc- 
ing and explaining scenes ; characters were put to 
sleep in all sorts of impossible places and under 
most unfavorable circumstances for the sake of 
advancing the plots; the actors sat on the stage 
during action or left it if not needed, exiting by 
means of ladders; ascensions and descents be- 
tween earth and heaven were accomplished by 
means of windlasses; and other crude customs 
and devices were prevalent in the plays of all the 
cycles. The large number of incongruous con- 
ventions so apparent to a man of to-day, however, 
did not dampen the enthusiasm of the audiences 
of that day, and the plays continued in popularity 
until their death from other causes. 



VII 
THE ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 

Introductory. In spite of the extraordinarily 
great number of incongruities evident to the 
twentieth-century student of the Corpus Christi 
stage, it is very probable that the actors and the 
audiences of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth 
centuries were not aware of the presence of any 
such inconsistencies at all. Had they been aware 
of the crudities in, for instance, their crucifixion 
scenes, they could not have sat entranced and in 
tears at the representation of Christ's passion and 
his death on the cross; and, moreover, they would 
have removed any such evident incongruous ele- 
ments; for we know from their town- and guild- 
accounts that they took great pride in a proper rep- 
resentation of their plays. 

In the preceding chapters we have seen some- 
thing of the care taken in the mechanical features 
of the pageants, in the symbolic scenery, and the 
general principles of staging. And we have ob- 
served how incongruous and inconsistent, in spite 
of the care taken in preparation, were many of the 
209 



210 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

conventions connected with the production of the 
cycles. We have not so far, however, considered 
in detail the actors in these plays, their costumes, 
and the general conventions governing them. It 
will be the purpose of this chapter, then, to study 
more fully the actors themselves, their methods 
of costuming, and their preparations for the 
pageants. 

Requirements of the Players. As has been 
said already, great care was taken by both the 
townspeople and the players in making preparations 
for the pageants. " Good speech, fyne players with 
Apparill comelye ", the Chester banes advertised of 
their actors ; and that this was generally so may be 
seen from the care taken by the towns in selecting 
these players, together with the frequent fines for 
poor playing and costuming. For instance, it was 
required by law at York, " pat yerely in pe tyme 
of lentyn there shall be called afore the maire for 
pe tyme beyng iiij of pe moste connyng discrete and 
able players within this Citie, to serche, here, and 
examen all pe plaiers and plaies and pagentes 
thrughoute all pe artificers belonging to Corpus Xti 
Plaie. And all suche as pay shall fynde sufficiant 
in personne and connyng, to pe honour of pe Citie 
and worship of pe saide Craftes, for to admitte 
and able ; and all oper insufficiant personnes, either 
in connyng, voice, or personne to discharge, 
ammove, and avoide. ^ And pat no plaier pat shall 
plaie in pe saide Corpus Xti plaie be conducte and 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 211 

reteyned to plaie but twise on pe day of pe saide 
playe; and pat he or thay so plaing plaie not 
ouere twise pe saide day, vpon payne of xl^. to 
forfet vnto pe chaumbre as often tymes as he or 
pay shall be founden defautie in pe same ".^ 

Miss Smith thought the meaning of this last 
order not clear and suggested that it might refer to 
a player undertaking more than one part in the 
same scene ; but Mr. Joseph Hall ^ has suggested 
with greater probability that the prohibition was 
against actors playing in more than two pageants. 
For when this ruling was made at York in 1418, 
there were no less than forty-eight plays and twelve 
stations at which pageants were accustomed to be 
represented ; and since a popular actor, for instance 
one in the first pageant, might be especially desired 
for another character in the thirteenth scene, con- 
siderable delay might necessarily be occasioned the 
thirteenth pageant before this popular actor could 
get back to the first station, change his costume, and 
get ready for his part. Mr. Hall thinks it was for 
this reason, " to prevent possible delay ", that the 
enactment was made, and not to forbid one actor 
playing double parts in the same scene. And no 
doubt he is right : the law forbade any player from 
performing more than twenty-four times in one 
day ; not an unfair leet by any means. 

Double Parts. Miss Smith was right, how- 

1 Quoted in Smith, York Mystery Plays, Introd., p. 

XXXVll. 

2 Englische Studien, ix. 448-9- 



212 CORPUS CHRIST! PAGEANTS 

ever, in her suggestion that actors probably under- 
took more than one part in the same play. She has 
called attention to the contemporary Play of the 
Sacrament, for which twelve characters were re- 
quired, and to the note at the end that " IX may 
play yt at ease ", and also to Bale's Kytige Johan 
and Preston's Camhises, in both of which several 
parts might be performed by one actor. But for- 
tunately there is other and more direct evidence 
in the plays themselves, a part of which Miss Smith 
herself called attention to elsewhere, though she 
failed to mention it in connection with the above 
suggestion. This evidence occurs in the York Tile- 
makers' Second Trial before Pilate, In the be- 
ginning of the play Christ is brought for the second 
time before Pilate by two soldiers, who apparently 
retire after turning their captive over to their chief. 
After Christ has been brought into the hall, how- 
ever, it is remarked " pat per [the standard-bear- 
ers'] schaftes schuke. And thej baneres to this 
brothell pai bowde all on brede ". Pilate becomes 
angry with the standard-bearers, but they declare 
that they could not help their banners bowing; so 
Pilate bids his beadle bring the strongest men in 
the country to hold the lances. — 

pou bedell, pis bodworde pou bere 

Thurgh pis towne ; — 
pe wyghtest men vn-to were, 
And pe strangest per standerdis to stere. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 213 

Hider blithely bid pam be bowne.— 11. 

212-16. 

Then the beadle says : 

A company of keuellis in this contre I knawe 
That grete ere and grill, to pe gomes will I 
gange. — 11. 219-20. 

According to the rubric he now goes to the first and 
second soldiers and says : 

Say, ye ledis botht lusty and lange, 
je most passe to sir Pilate a pace. 
i Mil. If we wirke not his wille it wer wrang, 
We are redy to renne on a race, 
And rayke.— 11. 221-5. 

As Miss Smith says: '* If we take this rubric as 
correct, the beadle goes out and fetches in the same 
soldiers (ist and 2nd) who had brought Jesus back 
from Herod to Pilate, and we may suppose had 
then retired. . . . They as well as Pilate are, how- 
ever, quite unconscious of the identity, . . . and 
we should probably name them seventh and eighth 
soldiers".* In other words, we have two actors 
playing double parts in this scene. 

Again: Sharp makes the statement that in 1540 
" the matter of pe castell of emaus " was added to 

* York Plays, p. 327 «• 



214 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

the Coventry cappers' pageant. " But ", he says, 
" no further particulars are discoverable in the Ac- 
counts of the Company, and as Cleophas and Luke 
are the only characters introduced, besides that of 
our Saviour; it seems reasonable to conclude that 
they were represented by performers who had 
personated other characters in the former part of 
the Pageant ".* Likewise, in the Coventry smiths' 
accounts for 1490, among other payments to God, 
Caiaphas, Herod, Pilate, Annas, and others — each 
singly, — we find iSd. paid " to the devyll & to 
Judas " and i6d. " to Petur & malkus ",^ showing 
that these four parts must have been represented 
by only two men. This economical method of em- 
ploying one actor for several parts was also cer- 
tainly used in the smiths' later Destruction of Jeru- 
salem. And since it became very popular, as we 
know, in the Elizabethan period, we n^ay not doubt 
that at this time too, when the plays were given 
over to the pageant-masters who agreed to bring 
them forth for certain fixed sums, these men were 
quick and willing to economize in every way pos- 
sible. 

Entertainment of the Players. These players, 
as said before, were selected with the greatest of 
care and were most hospitably entertained at the 
expense of the companies. In fact, the actors seem 
to have been employed with the understanding that 
meals and drink were to be supplied them. At any 

* Coventry Mysteries, p. 46. 
^Ihid., p. 16. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 215 

rate, the guild-accounts are full of memoranda for 
" drinke to the plaiers ", " dennares ", " stoopes for 
dreanke ", " mete and drenk ", " wyne ", " drencke 
to them that plaied ", *' expenc on pe pleares for 
makyng them to drynke & hete at ev'y reste ", 
" drynking for the playars betwen the play 
tymes ", and for numerous other convivial ex- 
penses. 

Requirements of the Players. In return for 
such large hospitality, however, the actors were ex- 
pected to render their parts in the pageants care- 
fully and well. In all cases apparently they were 
required to commit their parts to memory, and a 
special prompter was paid " for beryng of pe 
Orygynall " and correcting them in case they for- 
got their speeches. But if they forgot too often or 
acted too poorly, both they and their companies 
were promptly fined for the dishonor which they 
had brought on the town, — they by their pageant- 
masters, and their companies by the town council. 
Accounts are extant showing that companies at 
Beverley and Coventry were fined because their 
players did not know their parts; and in the Cov- 
entry weavers' accounts for 1450 and 1523 we learn 
that fines varying from 6c?. to lod. were collected 
from the players.^ 

Women's Parts. These actors, it is to be re- 
marked, seem to have been men only, as on the 
Elizabethan stage. Here again our records are un- 
fortunately defective, and we are able to speak posi- 

8 Sharp, Weavers' Pageant, p. 22. 



216 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

tively of the custom at Coventry only. But there 
certainly the players seem to have been men only. 
For instance, in the case of the Coventry v^eavers 
in 1450 we find three of their players deficient in 
their parts in some v^ay and being fined accordingly. 
Among these fines we notice sixpence *' Received of 
Hew Heyns, pleynge Anne, for hys fyne ".^ Like- 
wise, Dame Procula, Pilate's wife in the Coventry 
smiths' play, was a man; for in 1495 we hear of 
money being paid to " Ryngolds man Thomas pt 
playtt pylatts wyff ". In 1498, too, we find 2d. 
" paid to pylatts wyffe for his wag's ", and in 1490 
2j^af. " for a quarte of wyne for heyrynge of proc- 
ula is gowne ".^ Perhaps it would not be wholly 
safe to generalize too broadly from so few records 
as we have; but since women's parts were custom- 
arily taken by men and boys on the later Eliza- 
bethan stage, and since we have indisputable proof 
of the same custom in the above records of the 
Coventry plays, it seems fair to conclude that the 
female parts on the Corpus Christi stage were prob- 
ably always taken by men. 

Costumes. Costumes for the players were 
procured from all sorts of sources. Sometimes 
they were bought ; at other times they were rented ; 
but most frequently they were merely borrowed 
from the clergy and the neighboring gentry. At 
Lincoln the Guild of St. Anne was accustomed to 

'^ Sharp, Coventry Weavers' Pageant, p. 22. 
8 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 30 and n. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 217 

procure costumes for the players and regularly ap- 
pointed one of their number as '* graceman ", the 
officer who was responsible for getting the gar- 
ments together. To this guild '' every man and 
woman in the city, being able ", was required to be- 
long at an expense of '' yearly 4J., man and wife, at 
the least ".^ The whole story of the Lincoln cus- 
tom of borrowing costumes is told in a note for the 
year 15 15, when it was " agreed that whereas divers 
garments and other ' heriorments ' are yearly bor- 
rowed in the country for the arraying of the 
pageants of St. Anne's guild, but now the knights 
and gentlemen are afraid with the plague so that 
the * graceman ' cannot borrow such garments, 
every alderman shall prepare and set forth in the 
said array two good gowns, and every sheriff and 
every chamberlain a gown, and the persons with 
them shall wear the same. And the constables are 
ordered to wait upon the array in the procession, 
both to keep the people from the array, and also to 
take heed of such as wear garments in the same ".^*' 
And six years later we find the players borrowing a 
" gown of my lady ' Powes ' for one of the Maries, 
and the other Mary [was] to be arrayed in the 
crimson gown of velvet that belongeth to the gild ; 
and the prior of St. Katherine's to be spoken with 
to have such ' honourments ' as we have had afore- 
time "^'■ 

^Hist. MSS Comm., Lincoln MSS, p. 27. 
10 Hist. MSS Comm., xiv, App. 8, p. 25. 
^^Ibid., p. 29. 



218 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Church Vestments. The note of assurance in 
the borrowing of " honourments " from the prior 
of St. Katherine's should not be missed, however; 
for it was from the parish churches that the choic- 
est gold embroidered vestments often came. And 
in some places, where the churches were fortunate 
enough to possess a stock of " game gear ", .the 
thrifty clergy were accustomed to let the regular 
players' costumes at a good profit. An instance of 
this rental of church vestments is to be found 
among the smiths' accounts at Chester: — 

1569. To the Clarke for the lone of a Cope, an 

Altar Cloth and Tunicle xd. 

1575- For Copes and Clothe xiid. 

To John Shawe for lone of a Doctor's 

gowne and a hode for our eldest Doctor xiid. 

1566. Gloves for the Doctors and little God on 

Midsomer eve vid.^^ 

Purchase of Costumes. But in many places, 
where perhaps the parish churches could not fur- 
nish all the vestments needed, or where possibly the 
clergy, like the Rogers at Chester, were more 
opposed to the " abomination of desolation [defil- 
ing] with so highe a hand ye sacred scriptures of 
God ", the costumes had to be furnished by the 
guilds themselves and preserved from year to year, 
with possible supplements from outside sources. 
In such cases the playing gear seems to have been 
turned over to the pageant-master for safe keeping 

12 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 311 n. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 219 

and to have been preserved by him in the guild- 
room of the company. The fullest records of these 
" plaing garmands " come from Coventry, and it is 
interesting in the extreme to note the varied pur- 
chases and the great care and money expended for 
blue silks and velvet stockings, for darning Christ's 
hose, for scouring Mary's crov^n, mending the 
devil's head, gilding Judas's beard, and for pur- 
chases of vv^hite leather for God's coat. 

Character of the Costumes. On the whole 
the costumes were rich, gaudy, splendid, and ana- 
chronistic. Medieval Englishmen cared or knew 
nothing about historical setting and costuming, and 
what was good enough for an English nobleman or 
canon was considered entirely sufficient for Abra- 
ham, Annas and Caiaphas, or Herod. Besides, the 
audiences were interested in the splendor of the 
spectacles, not in the historical accuracy. For this 
reason the pageant-masters could require their play- 
ers always to wear gloves, no matter whether the 
occasion was a ceremonial one or the play of the 
rustic shepherds in the fields around Bethlehem, or 
whether it was Pilate on his throne in Jerusalem 
or Cain plowing in the field with his oxen. For 
this reason, too, the Coventry smiths could borrow 
Lady Powes's red velvet gown for Mary Mag- 
dalene. The richer the gown, the more splendid 
the show, no matter whether the costume was fitting 
to the particular rank of the personage represented 
or not. 



220 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Adam and Eve. Perhaps of all the costumes 
used in the Corpus Christi plays those of Adam 
and of Eve have been most discussed. Warton 
thought these characters were represented on the 
stage in absolute nudity. " In these Mysteries ", he 
says, " I have sometimes seen gross and open ob- 
scenities. In a play of the Old and New Testa- 
ment, Adam and Eve are both exhibited on the 
stage naked, and conversing about their nakedness ; 
this very pertinently introduces the next scene, in 
w^hich they have coverings of fig-leaves. This 
extraordinary spectacle was beheld by a numerous 
assembly of both sexes with great composure : they 
had the authority of scripture for such a represen- 
tation, and they gave matters just as they found 
them in the third chapter of Genesis. It would 
have been absolute heresy to have departed from 
the sacred text in personating the primitive appear- 
ance of our first parents, whom the spectators so 
nearly resembled in simplicity." ^^ 

Warton evidently thought the character of Eve 
impersonated by a woman. It was not, however; 
and in addition to, what Chambers calls " a fine a 
priori improbability " against her nakedness, Mr. 
R. B. McKerrow has shown with almost certainty 
that the players must have used " breeks " in order 
to (if we may so term it) " symbolize " their nudity. 
Mr. McKerrow cites first a passage of two lines 
frqm the well-known moral treatise of Dominicu? 

'^^ History of English Poetry, i. 243-4. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 221 

Mancinus, De Quatuor Virtiitibus, first printed in 
1484.— 

* Histrio, qui in scaenam vadit, sibi subligar aptat 
Ne prodat quidquid lex verecunda tegit.' 

Mancinus' book was translated three times into English 
in the course of the sixteenth century— once into prose by 
an unknown translator [The englysshe of Mancyne apon 
the foure cardynale verUies, c. 1520], and twice into verse 
by Alexander Barclay [Myrrour of good ?naners, c. 1523] 
and George Turberville [A plaine Path to perfect Vertue, 
1568] respectively. Two of these translations are not 
without interest. The first renders the two lines in 
question as follows: 

*A disgyser yt goeth into a secret corner callyd a sene 
of the pleyinge place to chaunge his rayment : ordenyth 
hymselfe a breche: the whiche at ye lest wyse he kepith 
styll apon hym : whatsomeuer pagent he pleyith/ 

This translation is interesting for the use of the word 
* scene' apparently in the sense of tiring-room, but Bar- 
clay's is perhaps rather more to the point. 

Expanding his original somewhat and saying that even 
'a dysgysed lougler or vyle iester vnpure' observes a 
certain amount of decency, he continues: 

* And therfore apperyng all naked in a play 
If his parte so requyre presented for to be 
He kepeth his foule partes hyd in a brake alway 
Nat shewyng what nature hath set in pryuete.' 

I presume that by 'brake' he means 'breeks': in the 
reprint of the Myrrour, which was appended to the edi- 
tion of Barclay's translation of Stultifera Navis in 1570. 



222 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

the word appears as 'breech'. It seems clear that the 
translator must have been thinking of the Adam and Eve 
plays, for few, if any, of the other characters would re- 
quire to be represented as naked. 

Turberville's version is only of interest in that he 
seems to have missed the point of the original, suggesting 
at least that he had never seen a play of this sort at all. 
He has: 

* When so a Player comes on stage 
he ties his trinkets harde, 
For feare if ought should fal, the plays 
Decorum should be marde.* i* 

It may be added that the " 2 cotes & a payre hosen 
for Eve, stayned " and " A cote & hosen for Adam, 
Steyned " at Norvv^ich were probably for their cos- 
tumes after being clothed by God and driven out of 
Eden. The " 2 hearys for Adam & Eve ", how- 
ever, would seem to indicate that they had worn 
wigs throughout the play. 

God. Another character closely associated 
with those of Adam and of Eve was God, although 
comparatively little is known of the actual costum- 
ing of this personage. At Norwich in the grocers' 
Fall of Man God wore a mask and artificial hair, 
and at Newcastle in the slaters' Abraham and Isaac 
he and his angel both wore crowns. And from the 
Rogers Breauarye it would seem that at Chester he 
probably had his face gilded. The Rogers quota- 
tion from the banes of the plays is as follows : 

1* Modern Language Quarterly, vi. 145-6. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 223 

For no man can proportion that Godhead, I 

saye, 
To the shape of man face, nose, and eyne; 
But sethence ye face gilte doth disfigure ye 

man that deme 
A Clowdy Coueringe of ye man a voyce only 

to heare. 
And not God in shape or person to appeare.^' 

As we shall see later, Christ, who was also called 
God, had his costume of white leather, and it may 
be possible that God was also apparelled in this 
way. 

Noah. Noah and his wife were two other im- 
portant personages in the Old Testament scenes, 
but practically no information as to their costumes 
has survived. In the Wakefield play we are told 
that Noah wore some sort of coat which he cast off 
before beginning work on the ark. And in the 
Hull mariners' scene, which, however, seems not to 
have been of the regular Corpus Christi type of 
play, he was furnished with ** a payr of new 
mytens " and a coat made of three skins. How 
Noah's wife, " Uxor Noe ", was arrayed we do not 
know ; but that she must have been a popular char- 
acter may be judged from the speeches given her in 
the plays. Indeed, in several of the plays she seems 
to have been little more than a clown, and, being a 
man as she was, boxing her husband's ears, refus- 

^^ Furnivall, Digby Mysteries, p. xx. 



224 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

ing to enter the ark of her own accord, and requir- 
ing her husband and sons to force her in — all this 
before a crowd of gaping, ale-drinking, and apple- 
eating commons, — she must have created an im- 
mense amount of fun. That she was thus looked 
upon as a clown is very forcibly emphasized in the 
York play when she inquires of her husband: 

But Noye, where are nowe all oure kynne, 
And companye we knewe be-fore? 
Noe. Dame, all ar drowned, late be thy dyne. 

— 11. 269-71. 

In other words, shut your mouth ! 

The Devil. Possibly the most popular char- 
acter on the Corpus Christi stage, however, was the 
Devil ; certainly he was so if we except Christ.^/' In 
fact, the Devil and his lively troop of under-demons 
seem to have furnished most of the comedy in many 
of the plays.^\ And no doubt their various noises, 
strange gestures, unnatural contortions, and queer 
costumes must have been the cause of much excited 
laughter among the vulgar spectators. A good 
example of this comical side of the Devil's char- 
acter in the Corpus Christi plays is to be seen at 
the beginning of the York smiths' Temptation of 
Jesus, where Diabolus in the midst of the throng 
about the pageant-wagon suddenly gains the atten- 
tion of the audience by exclaiming: 

Diab. Make rome be-lyve, and late me gang, 
Who makis here all pis prang? 



/ 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 225 

High you hense ! high myght 50U hang 

right with a roppe. 

I drede me pat I dwelle to lang 

to do a jape.— 11. 1-6. 

In other words, we may imagine that the pageant- 
wagon has just moved into its place at the station 
and that the Devil, as a clever device for gaining the 
attention of the audience, has purposely dropped 
off the wagon among the crowd, where he has been 
chasing timid small boys and pretending to catch 
them and take them off to hell. Then when all is 
ready on the wagon and Christ is in his place on the 
mountain, Diabolus suddenly rushes toward the 
wagon, climbs in, and takes his place beside Christ. 
The " Adam '* Play. Such a custom of making 
excursions through the audience would be strictly 
in accordance with the traditional stage habits of 
the Devil, an example of which is to be seen in the 
Anglo-Norman Adam, where the devils carry Adam 
and Eve to hell. The stage-direction there reads: 
"Then shall come the devil and three or four devils 
with him, carrying in their hands chains and iron 
fetters, which they shall put on the necks of Adam 
and Eve. And some shall push and others pull 
them to hell; and hard by hell shall be other devils 
ready to meet them, who shall hold high revel at 
their fall. And certain other devils shall point 
them out as they come, and shall snatch them up 
and carry them into hell ; and there shall they make 



226 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

a great smoke arise, and call aloud to each other 
with glee in their hell, and clash their pots and 
kettles, that they may be heard without. And after 
a little delay the devils shall come out and run 
about the stage ; but some shall remain in hell "/^ 
Costumes of the Devil. Numerous pictures of 
the Devil have come down to us from medieval 
times, generally picturing him with horns on his 
head, a long crooked snout, and a tail. He is 
usually clad in black and carries a horn, a great 
club, or some kind of staff with curved hooks on 
the end. In the Nev/castle shipwrights' Noah's 
Ark the Devil swears by his crooked snout,^' which 
indicates that some kind of mask must have been 
worn ; and in Gammer Gurton's Needle Hodge gives 
an excellent description of what one may suppose to 
have been the old Corpus Christi devil : — 

[Hodge] By the masse, ich saw him of late 

cal vp a great blacke deuill ! 
O, the knaue cryed " ho ! ho ! " He roared, and 

he thundred. 
And yead bene here, cham sure yould murrenly 

ha wondred! . . . 
Gammer. But, Hodge, had he no homes, to 

pushe ? 

^6 Chambers's translation from the Latin stage-direc- 
tions after 1, 590. Compare Grass, Das Adamsspiel, pp. 
31-2. 

17 Compare Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, p. 
23, 1. 127. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 227 

Hodge. As long as your two armes ! Saw ye 

neuer Fryer Rushe 
Painted on a cloth, with a side long cowes 

tayle, 
And crooked clouen feete, and many a hoked 

nayle ? 
For al the world, if I shuld iudg, chould 

recken him his brother. 
Loke, euen what face Frier Rush had, the deuil 

had such another ! ^^ 

All this evidence is corroborated by entries in the 
Coventry accounts as given by Sharp. Some of 
the items to be noted are as follows: " 145 1. — Itm 
payd for pe demons garment makyng & p[e] stof 
. , . vs. \\]d. ob. ; Itm payd for collyryng of pe 
same garment . . . viij(/.; 1494. — Itm paid to 
Wattis for dressyng of the devells hede . . . viijrf.; 
1498. — It' paid for peynttyng of the demones hede; 
1567. — Itm payd for a stafe for the demon . . . 
iiijrf.;^^ Itm payde for mendynge pe devells cote 
and makyng the devells heade . . . iiij^. v]d.; Itm 
payd for a yard of canvas for pe devells malle & for 
makyng . . . vn]d. ; Itm payd for payntyng pe dev- 
ells clubbe;^^ 1540. — It' for peyntyng & makyng 
new ij damons beds; 1556. — payd for a demons 
face . . . \]s.; 1560. — payd to Cro for mendyng 
the devells cottes . . . xxc?.; 1568. — payd for mak- 

18 III. 2: 12-22. 

19 Coventry Mysteries, p. 31. 

20 Ibid., p. 56. 



22S CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

yng the devells hose . . . vnjd.; payd for canvas 
for one of the devells hose . . . xjJ.; payd for 
makyng the ij devells facys . . . x^.; payd for 
makyng a payre of hose wt. heare . . . xxijd.; 
payd for u]li. of heare . . . ijs. vjc?.; 1572. — It' 
pd for ij pound of heare for the demons cotts & 
hose and mending ".^^ 

From these entries we see that the Devil in one 
instance had a club made of canvas, painted and 
possibly stuffed with wool, as was Pilate's (which 
we shall notice later) ; and Sharp remarks that from 
the many entries made for painting and repairing 
the Devil's mall, " we may presume that by way of 
exciting merriment, he laid about him during the 
time of performance on such persons as were within 
his reach, as well as in those instances where it was 
required in the play ". In the other instance we 
notice that the Devil had a " stafe ", which probably 
was the hooked staff referred to above. From 
these citations it is also certain that the Devil in 
some cases wore a false face; in others, an entire 
false head. This was of course the easiest method 
of presenting the crooked snout and the well-known 
horns. Likewise, several pounds of hair were 
bought for his coat and hose, with the intent prob- 
ably of representing him as fearfully as possible. 
At Norwich, too, where " a cote wt hosen & tayle 
for ye serpente, steyned, wt a wt heare ", was found 
among the properties of the grocers' company in 

21 Loc. cit., p. 69. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 229 

1565, he seems to have been adorned with hair; but 
in this case he seems to have been habited, not in his 
usual costume, but in one especially made to repre- 
sent the snake in the garden of Eden. Sharp, how- 
ever, prints a cut picturing a hairy horned devil and 
two feathered fellows in one of his various hell- 
pictures, but the present writer has not met with any 
other references which indicate that the Devil was 
hairy. The reference in the banes to the Chester 
plays of " the devill in his fethers, all ragger and 
rente " is too well known to need comment. 

Souls. Other characters often closely asso- 
ciated with the devils were the souls of those sup- 
posed to be dead, of whom there were usually six, 
three " savyd " and three " dampnyd ". From 
various references here and there in the plays, as 
well as from the Coventry account-books, it seems 
that the damned souls were dressed in black and the 
saved ones in white. Lucifer's expression noted 
above, " Now I am a devyl ful derke, that was an 
aungelle bryht ", would indicate this difference, as 
would the cry of the fallen angels in the Wakefield 
Creation: — 

Now ar we waxen blak as any coyll, 
and vgly, tatyrd as a foyll. — 11. 136-7. 

In Henry V (11. 3: 42-4), too, the Boy seems to 
refer to the same custom of the damned souls being 
clothed in black when he says : *' Do you not re- 



230 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

member, a' saw a flea stick upon Bardolph's nose, 
and a' said it was a black soul burning in hell-fire " ? 
And the evidence from the drapers' accounts at 
Coventry leaves no doubt that this was the custom 
in that city. Sharp prints the following from their 
accounts: " 1536. — Itm for mendyng the white & 
the blake soules cotes . . . vnjd; 1537. — Itm for v 
elnes of Canvas for shyrts & hose for the blakke 
soules, at vd. the elne . . . ij,y. jd; Itm for coloryng 
and makyng the same cots . . . ixd; Itm for mak- 
yng & mendynge of the blakke soules hose . . . wjd; 
Itm for a payre of newe hose & mendyng of olde 
for the whyte soules . . . xviijc?; 1543. — It' p'd ffor 
the mendyng of the whytt soils kotts wt the ij skyns 
pt. went to them . . . xvjd; 1556. — p'd for canvas 
for the sollys cottys xix ellys . . . xinjs ii]d; p'd 
for ix elys of canvas made yellow . . . xijJ; p'd 
for X elys of canvas made blacke . . . xd; payd 
for ij pessys of yallow bokeram . . . vij^y vjd; payd 
for iiij yards of Rede bokaram . . . ij^ viijc?; payd 
for makyng the sollys cotts . . . y]s viijc?; p'd for 
blakyng the sollys fassys; 1565. — p'd for ix yards 
& a halfe of bukram for the Sowles coates . . . 
vij^; 1567. — p'd for iij elnes of yelloo Canvas . . . 
i]s xd; It' for cohering the solles cotts yelloo . . . 
XY]d".^^ From which it appears that the white or 
saved souls were habited in white coats and hose 
and that these coats were made of skins. In the 
case of the black or damned souls, they were 

22 Lor. cit., p. 70. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 231 

dressed in coats and hose of black buckram or can- 
vas and had their faces blackened. In later years, 
however, their costumes came to be black, yellow, 
and red parti-colored, a device used possibly to im- 
press the spectators all the more forcibly with the 
horror of their abode. The saved and lost souls 
were probably never more than minor characters in 
any of the plays. Certainly this was true in the 
Coventry drapers' play, if we may judge from the 
amounts paid them, their fees usually being about 
half those of the principal characters. 

Angels. The costumes for angels seem to 
have been as various as were the personages who 
represented these characters. One purpose, how- 
ever, may be said to have governed the designing of 
their apparel: to make it emblematical of the 
heavenly kingdom, to have it represent purity and 
meekness. This was Mary's statement, rather 
crudely expressed, to the angel in the Digby Mary 
Magdalene: — 

{ijus angelus.] 

In a mentyll of whyte xall be ower araye ; 
The dores xall opyn a-gens vs be ryth. 

Mary. 

O, gracyus god, now I vndyrstond ! 
thys clothyng of whyte is tokenyng of meke- 
ness.^^ 

23Furmvall, Digby Mysteries, p. 115. 



232 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

In the cappers' play at Coventry the angels' cos- 
tumes seem to have come from one of the churches ; 
for we find entries *' for waschyng pe angells albs " 
and *' for mendynge pe angells surpasses & wassh- 
yng ".^* In the Beverley Fall of Man the angel 
wore wings; in the Norwich grocers' pageant he 
wore a " Cote & over hoses of Apis Skynns " ; and 
in the weavers' play at Coventry and in the Abra- 
ham and Isaac at Newcastle the angels, like God, 
wore crowns. Sharp's records of the angels' cos- 
tumes in the Coventry drapers' play, where there 
were four angels, is as follows: " 1538. — Itm for 
makyng an angells, scytte [suit?] . . . xijc?. ; 1540. — 
Itm for peyntyng & makyng new iiij peire of angells 
wyngs ; 1556. — payd for iiij pere of angyllys wyngys 
. . . ij^. m\]d.; payd for iiij dyadymes . . . ij.f. 
\\]d.; payd for vj goldyn skynnes . . . v^.^^ Here 
again it is noticeable that the angels wore wings and 
diadems, and Sharp thinks that the golden skins 
were for the coats. " No other personages ", he 
says, " seem to have so strong a claim to the six 
Golden skins : they were certainly not used for any 
part of God's dress; and in the original entry this 
item immediately follows that of the four Diadems." 

Christ. The most important personage in the 
Corpus Christi plays as a whole undoubtedly was 
Christ, called also God. The importance of this 
character is shown by the amounts paid the actors 

24 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 55-6. 
^^Ihid., p. 71. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 2?>2> 

who impersonated him, by the stories that have 
come down to us about the scenes in which he took 
part, and by a study of the plays themselves. In 
the Chester blacksmiths' Purification of Mary, 
where Christ is only a child, we find sixteen pence 
paid '' the lytell God " in 1551, twelve pence in 1554, 
and sixteen pence again in 1567. By the Coventry 
weavers, where he is also a child, we find four pence 
paid in 1 55 1 " to the woman for her chyld ", and in 
1553 the same amount again " to the letell chylde".''^ 
But in the Coventry drapers' Doomsday, where 
Christ is a man and is. the most important personage 
in the play, his fee in 1538 was 3^. 40^. against is. 6d. 
to the next highest paid actor. 

Of the importance and the power of this character 
on his audiences Sharp relates an interesting story 
from Disraeli's MS. Life of John Shaw, Vicar of 
Rotherham, inserted in his Curiosities of Literature. 
Says the Vicar, who was preaching on one occasion 
at a place called €artmel in Lancashire : " I found 
a very large spacious church, scarce any seats in it ; 
a people very ignorant, and yet willing to learn ; so 
I had frequently some thousands of hearers. I 
catechised in season and out of season. The 
churches were so thronged at nine in the morning, 
that I had much ado to get to the pulpit. One day, 
an old man of sixty, sensible enough in other things, 
and living in the parish of Cartmel, coming to me on 
some business, I told him that he belonged to my 

2» Sharp, Weavers' Pageant, p. 22. 



234 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

care and charge, and I desired him to be informed 
in his knowledge of rehgion. I asked him how 
many Gods there were? He said he knew not. I 
informing him, asked again how he thought to be 
saved? He answered he could not tell. Yet 
thought that was a harder question than the other. 
I told him that the way to salvation was by Jesus 
Christ; God-man, who, as he was man, shed his 
blood for us on the cross, &c. Oh Sir, said he, I 
think I heard of that man you speak of once in a 
play at Kendall, called Corpus Christ's play, where 
there was a man on a tree, and blood run down, &c. 
And afterwards he professed he could not remem- 
ber that he ever heard of salvation by Jesus, but in 
that play." 

Christ's Costumes. Christ's costume seems to 
have been more or less uniform. In the York pin- 
ners' Crucifixion we have a " kirtill ", a " coote ", 
and a ■" mantell " referred to as his apparel, and in 
the corresponding play at Chester, a coat, a kirtle, 
and a " paulle ". In the Coventry weavers' accounts 
for 1564 payments were made for " payntyng of 
Jesus heade ", probably gilt, and for darning Christ's 
• hose ; and Sharp adds the following items relative to 
his costume in the Coventry smiths' and cappers' 
plays: " 145 1. — It' payed for vj skynnys of whit- 
leder to godds garment . . . xviijfl^.; It' payed for 
makyng of the same garment . . . xd.; 1553. — It' 
payd for v schepskens for gods coot & for makyng 
. . . iij^.; 1498. — It' payd for mendyng a cheverel 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 235 

for god and for sowyng of gods kote of leddur and 
for makyng of the hands to the same kote . . . 
xijfl?.; 1490. — It' a cheverel gyld for Ihesus; 1565. — 
pd for payntyng & gyldyng gods cote; pd for a 
gyrdyll for god . . . iijd.; 1501. — It^ pd ffor a ^^ , 
newe sudere for god . . . vijcf^;^^ 1556. — payde 
"for vij skynnes for godys cote; 1557. — paid for a 
peyre of gloves for god . . . ijd.; 1562. — payd for 
a Cote for God and for a payre of gloves . . . n]s. ; 
1565. — p'd for iij yards of Redde Sendall for God 
. . . xxd ''.28 The use of the " Redde Sendall " is 
not clear, but from the other entries it is evident 
that Christ's hair was gilded and that he wore a 
coat of sheepskin leather which was sometimes 
white, sometimes gilded, and to which the hands 
were attached. The "sudere" was probably the! 
legendary veronica on which his image was painted) '^^ CA.%fi 
and may or may not have been carried by him. 

"Anima Christi." Another, and yet the same, 
character comes up for discussion next, the Spirit 
of Christ, Anima Christi, or Spirit of God, about 
which Sharp was strangely confused in his Dis- 
sertation. The four items which he prints are as 
follows : " Itm payd for pe spret of Gods cote 
. . . \]s\ Itm payd for pe makyng of pe same 
cote . . . viijc?; Itm payd for ij yardes and halfe 
off bockram to make the spirits cote . . . \]s ]d; 
Itm payd for makynge the same cote . . . v\\]d".^^ 

27 Loc. cit., p. 26. 

28 Ihid., p. 69. 
^^Ibid., p. 54- 



236 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

With regard to this character Sharp says : " No 
article of dress explicitly intended for this char- 
acter [Christ, or God] appears in the Accounts. 
There is a charge for painting, inter alia, p[e] 
Rattel, pe Spade & ij crossys & hell mowythe " 
and also an item of expences for boards used about 
the Sepulchre side of the Pageant .... I once 
hesitated in determining whether this character [the 
Spirit of God] represented God the Father, or was 
meant for our Saviour after his resurrection; but 
a very ingenious friend says : — * I suspect the 
" Spirit of God " to mean the Holy Ghost. This 
third person in the Trinity was not always repre- 
sented as a dove, but occasionally as a human figure, 
as some old prints demonstrate '." Sharp's friend, 
however, seems to have been more ingenious than 
reasonable in his suggestion; for a study of the 
Coventry account-books shows that the scenes rep- 
resented by the cappers were the descent into hell, 
the setting of the watch, the resurrection, and the 
appearance to Mary Magdalene and the travelers, 
in none of which is any spirit of God the Father 
needed. On the contrary, the Spirit of Christ, 
Anima Christi, is certainly needed in the harrowing 
of hell, and would be perfectly appropriate in the 
others. Moreover, in none of the plays that have 
come down to us do we have any use of the spirit of 
God the Father, the Holy Ghost, while in the De- 
scent into Hell of the so-called Ludus CoventricE 
we do have an Anima Christi. Hence it seems 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 237 

reasonable to suppose that the buckram garments 
referred to above were meant for the Spirit of 
Christ; and since no other article of dress was 
purchased for Christ himself, it may not be im- 
possible that the Anima Christi appeared instead 
\J of the living Christ in all the cappers' scenes. 

Herod. The Corpus Christi Herod is known 
to all of us from Hamlet's description of his ranting 
manner : " O, it offends me to the soul to hear 
a robustious periwig-pated fellow tear a passion 
to tatters, to very rags, to split the ears of the 
groundlings, who, for the most part, are capable 
of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise : 
I would have such a fellow whipped for o'erdoing 
Termagant ; it out-herods Herod ". And that Ham- 
let's description is not overdrawn let the following 
from the Chester Adoration of the Magi bear wit- 
ness : — 



For I am king of all mankinde, 

I byd, I beat, I loose, I bynde, 

I maister the Moone ; take this in mynde 

that I am most of mighte. 

I am the greatest aboue degree, 
that is or was or euer shall be. 
the Sonne it dare not shyne on me 
if I byd hym goe downe.— 11. 169-76, 



238 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

\./ 

'The importance of Herod's character in the plays 

is shown by the large amount spent on his costumes X 
and by the sums he received for his work, the per- 
former receiving as much as 3^. Sd. for his services. 
Some of the garments bought for him by the Coven- 
try smiths are as follows : " I477- — I^' to a peynter 
for peyntyng the ffauchon & herods face . . . 
xd ; 1490. — A ' fawchon' a ' septur ' and ' a Creste 
for heroude'; 1501. — Itm ffor vj ^ards satten iij 
quatrs .... xvj^ xd ; Itm for v tardus off blowe 
bokeram . . . iji- x']d; It' pd ffor makyng off 
herodus gone . . , xvd; 1547. — Pd to John Croo 
for mendyng of herrods hed and a myter and other 
thyngs . . . i]s; 1489. — It' paid ffor a gowen to 
Arrode .... vijj iiij^; It' paid ffor peyntyng 
& steynyng ther off , . . vj^ iiijc?; It' payd ffor 
Aroddes garment peynttyng pt he went a prossayon 
in ... . xxd; 1494. — It' payd for iij platis to 
Heroddis Crest of Iron . . . vjrf; It' payd for 
a paper of Aresdyke [tinsel] . . . xijJ; It' payd to 
Hatfeld for dressyng of Herods Creste .... 
xinjd; 1499. — It' payd to John Hatfelde for colours 
and gold foyle & sylver foyle for pe crest and for 
pe fawchon ".^° 

Little comment is needed on these entries. Herod 
in one year, it is evident, wore a satin gown, prob- 
ably blue, Sharp tells us, for which the sum of 
nearly a pound was paid ; in other years his gown 
was painted or stained ; he also wore a false face 
30 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 28-9. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 239 

and hair and a crest adorned with gold foil ; and he 
carried a falchion which was also gilt. Leach adds 
that at Beverley Herod always appeared with a 
black face,^^ but for this assertion the present 
writer has not been able to find any further justifi- 
cation than that the mercers in that town played 
" Black Herod ". 

Pilate. A character of equal or even greater im- 
portance than Herod was Pilate, whom Mr. C. M. 
Gayley has chosen to interpret as something of a 
clown^^, though there seems to be no justification 
in the plays for this view. The grounds for Mr. 
Gayley's suggestion seem to be that Pilate carried 
a mall, or club, and that some sort of leather balls, 
the use of which we do not certainly know, were 
bought for him. Let us observe the entries which 
refer to Pilate in the Coventry smiths' and cappers' 
accounts : " 1480. — pd for mendyng of pilats hat 
. . . iiijJ; 1494. — It' paid for braband to pylatts 
hate vd & for canvas , . . ijc? ob. ; 1490. — It' a 
Cloke for pilatte [and] Itm a hatt for pilatte re- 
paired ;^^ [A green (?) cloak for Pilate and] a 
skeane of grene silke [to mend it] ; Makyng of 
pylatts malle . . . xxijrf. ; A new malle . . . xxrf; 
pd Richard Hall for makyng pylates clubbe . . . 
xiijJ; pd ffor ij pounde & halfe off woole ffor the 
same clubbe . . . xc? ; pd for balles for pylatt . . . 

31 In Furnivall Miscellany, pp. 213-14. 

32 Plays of Our Forefathers, p. 106. 

33 Sharp. Loc. cit., p. 32. 



240 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

iijd; lether for balles . . . ijrf; pd for makyng of 

xvj balls & for ij skyns of lether . . . vd; pd for a 

skyn for balls, for makyng &: sowyng . . . vrf; pd 

for balls & for mendyng of pylatts cloobe . . . 

iiijd; p'd for a payre of gloves for pylate . . . iiijrf; 

p'd for assyden for pilat head . . . i]d; p'd for 

canvas . . . vjd; & the makyng of pylats doblet 

. . . xvjd".^* 

From these items v^e see that Pilate at various 

times wore a cloak, which was probably green 

(since green silk thread was bought for mending 

it), a doublet, gloves, and a gilded wig, and that he 

carried a mall, the head of which was made of 

leather stuffed with wool and fixed on a wooden 

handle. This leather head was seventeen inches 

long, Sharp tells us, and Mr. Gayley adds of its use : 

"His [Pilate's] mall . . . served partly for a sign 

of authority but more for beating his companions 

and the public. The balls were perhaps the insignia 

of office; but more likely, since they, too, were of 

leather, they served for interludes of juggling. The 

margin of the Chester plays is studded with stage 

directions such as ' fluryshe ', * cast up \ ' sworde ', 

when ranting kings like Balaak and Herod are on 

the boards. The * caste-up ' is hardly of anything 

internal: it may be of the staff (sceptre) or of the 

balls. Such nonsense seemed requisite to offset the 

intense and unfamiliar strain of gazing upon royalty 

even though illusionary^^ ". This, however, seems 

3* Sharp, Loc. cit., pp. 50-1. 
^^Loc. cit., p. 106. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 241 

rather a strained delineation of Pilate's character, 
especially since none of the plays show Pilate to 
be of the ranting Herod type. Moreover, a study 
of the Chester plays, to which Mr. Gayley refers, 
shows that none of the stage-directions which sug- 
gested jugglery to him, refer to Pilate at all; and 
it might easily be admitted that the club was made 
of leather and stuffed with wool for the purpose 
of striking those under Pilate's authority without 
requiring us to regard him as a clown; for real 
kings and queens in even later times are known to 
have shown even more violent manifestations of 
temper than merely striking their courtiers. The 
present writer, to be sure, would like to hold this 
view of Pilate's character, for it adds a new trait 
to his nature; but the facts seem against it. The 
Chester stage-directions implying jugglery do not 
refer to Pilate at all; the mall of itself would not 
give him the character of a clown, especially since 
the whole tenor of the play is against this view; 
and the balls of which so much has been made seem 
to have been nothing more than the little leather 
balls sewed on the leather club. In the picture 
which Sharp has given us of this mall only three 
of these balls are left; but the club was then in a 
very dilapidated condition, as a glance at the picture 
will show, and it may be supposed that the rest of 
them were lost off in the plays and in the course 
of the centuries of decay. 

Annas and Caiaphas. Annas and Caiaphas in 



242 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

the Corpus Christi plays seem to have been in im- 
portance almost equal to Pilate. At Coventry in 
1490 the payment to Pilate was 4^., to Annas 2s. 2d., 
and to Caiaphas 3^. ^d., and in other years the rela- 
tive differences were about the same. Excellent 
descriptions of the costumes of both these char- 
acters have survived, fortunately enough, in the 
Coventry records. The smiths' accounts are as fol- 
lows: " i486. — It' for a tabarde & an hoode [the 
hire of] . . . m]d.; 1487. — It' paid ffor hyryng off 
a skarlet wood [hood] and a raygete [rochet] ffor 
on off the bisshopis . . . vc?. ; 1499. — It' payde for 
colours and gold foyle & sylver foyle for ij myt- 
tyrs; 1544. — payd for a bysschops taberd of scarlet 
that we bowght in the trente church . . . yis. ; ^^ 
Itm paide for makyng pe ij byschoppes gownse 
. . . xxjrf; Itm p'd for furryng pe sayd gownse 
. . . V]s iiijc?; Itm an ell of bockram for one of the 
bysshoppes . . . xiijc?; Itm payd for furrynge of 
the hoodes . . . viij[c/] ".^^ And in the smiths' 
Purification at Chester the doctors in the temple, 
though a different set of doctors from those men- 
tioned above, seem to have worn very similar cos- 
tumes. In 1575, for instance, I2d. was paid " To 
John Shawe for lone of a Doctor's gowne and a 
hode for our eldest Doctor ".^^ And Joseph in both 
this play and in the corresponding scene at Wake- 
s' Sharp, Loc. cit., pp. 27-8. 

37 Ihid., p. 55. 

38 Morris, Chester during the Plantagenet and Tudor 
Reigns, p. 311 n. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 243 

field refers to the doctor as " so gay in furres fyne ". 
Simeon, likewise, puts on his vestments before Mary 
and Joseph come with the Christ child. It will 
thus be seen that no special care seems to have been 
taken to distinguish the doctors and Annas and 
Caiaphas. All were richly dressed ; but beyond this 
the esthetic tastes of the players and the people did 
not extend. Hence the following descriptions of 
the " honourments " of Annas and Caiaphas in the 
stage-directions of the so-called Ludus Coventrice, 
though they do not come under the strict head of 
Corpus Christi costumes, seem nevertheless good 
summaries of the usual dresses of these characters. 
Annas's gown is thus minutely described : — 

Here xal Annas sliewyn hymself in his stage, be seyn 
after a busshop of the hoold lawe, in a skarlet gowne, and 
over that a blew tabbard furryd with whyte, and a 
mytere on his hed, after the hoold lawe; ij. doctorys 
stondyng by hym in furryd hodys, and on beforn hem with 
his staff of astat, and eche of hem on here hedys a furryd 
cappe, with a gret knop in the crowne, and on stondyng 
beforn as a Sarajyn, the wiche xal be his masangere.^^ 

And Caiaphas's apparel is made to vary only 
slightly from Annas's: — 

Here goth the masangere forth, and in the mene tyme 
Cayphas shewyth himself in his skafhald arayd lyche to 
Annas, savyng his tabbard xal be red furryd with white: 

3» Halliwell, Coventry Mysteries, pp. 244-5. 



244 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

ij. doctorys with him arayd with pellys aftyr the old gyse, 
and furryd cappys on here hedys.'*^ 

The Three Marys. The three Marys may all 
be considered together; for, with the exception of 
the crown always worn by the Virgin, their cos- 
tumes seem to have been alike. Attention has 
already been called to the note at Lincoln which 
mentions " a gown [borrowed] of my lady * Powes ' 
for one of the Maries, and the other Mary to be 
arrayed in the crimson gown of velvet that be- 
longeth to the gild ". Likewise, from the Coventry 
smiths' accounts we have the following references 
to the clothes of Mary Magdalene and the " two 
side Maries " : " Itm p'd for mendynge maudlyns 
cote . . . iiijfl?; Itm payd for skowryng of maryes 
crowns ... jo? ; Itm for payntynge pe maries 
rolles*^ .... injd; Itm p'd for a yard of bokeram 
. . . xijc?; Itm p'd for makynge pe roles . . . Ajd; 
Itm p'd for mendyng pe maries rolles . . . ijd; 
paid for mendyng the maries heare . . . Yujd"*^ 

Tormentors. Before passing to the other 
minor or less-known characters it may be well to 
notice the costumes of the tormentors, who, at 
Coventry at least, seem to have been the most gaily 

^^ Loc. cit., p. 246. 

*i The use of these " rolles " is not known. A friend 
has suggested to the author that they may refer to the rolls 
of hair, — not buckram over which the hair was rolled, but 
to the actual rolls of artificial hair as worn by the players, 
who were men and had to have their headgear rolled and 
painted in advance. 

*2 Sharp, Loc. cit., p. 56. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 245 

and gorgeously appareled of the lesser personages. 
In the Coventry Crucifixion, for example, there 
were " iiij Jakkets of blake bokeram for pe tor- 
mentors wt nayles & dysse upon pem ", and '' other 
iiij for tormentors of an other suett wythe damaske 
fflowers ", and yet " ij party Jakketts of Rede and 
blake " and " ij of bokeram wt hamers 
crowned ".*^ Three hammers crowned, it is to be 
noted, were the arms of the smiths' company; and 
the fact that the large sum of twenty-four shillings 
was paid for four gowns and the four hoods that 
went with them may be accounted for on the ground 
that these tormentors bore the arms of the company 
and were in a measure the guild's representatives. 
*' Ye Pendon bearer " at Norwich also wore " a 
cote of yellow buckram wt ye Grocers' arms " ; and 
one might infer, since the companies were not al- 
lowed to show their arms on the pageant-wagon, 
that they were thus accustomed to display their 
insignia on one of the minor characters. 

Minor Characters. Of the costumes of the 
other characters in the Corpus Christi plays little is 
known, and their apparel may be passed over more 
hastily. St. Thomas of India in the Wakefield play 
of that name wore a hat, a mantle, a coat, a gay 
girdle, and carried a silk purse and a staff.** Peter 
in the Coventry smiths' Crucifixion wore a " chev- 
erel gyld" and probably an artificial beard and a 

*3 Sharp, Loc. cit., p. i6. 
44 Cf. 11. 319 ff- 



246 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

gown of some kind. Judas seems to have had the 
traditional red beard and hair ; and in the Coventry 
Crucifixion an expenditure of two shilHngs was 
made " for Canvys for Judas Coote ". Joseph, the 
foster father of Christ, is always referred to as 
an old man. In the Chester Nativity he is men- 
tioned as having a beard " like a buske of breyers, 
with a pound of heaire about his mouth and 
more ". The Magi in the Chester Magi's Oblation 
are spoken of as " in rich Aray ", but nothing fur- 
ther is known of their " arayment ". In the Coven- 
try smiths' Crucifixion, Pilate's wife, Dame Proc- 
ula, wore a gown borrowed of one " Maisturres 
grymesby " ; and again in 1490 " a quarte of wyne 
[was given] for heyrynge of procula is gowne ". 
In 1477 it would seem that she wore a white gown 
of some kind, since what seems to have been white 
sleeves^^ were put into one of her garments. 
Pilate's son in the same play in 1490 wore a hat 
and a gown of some kind and carried a poll-axe 
and a sceptre. And, lastly, the knights in the 
Coventry cappers ', and possibly in the smiths ', play 
were arrayed in suits of white armor. A similar 
dress for the knights is thus described in the stage- 
directions to the Hegge plays, when Judas comes 
with his rabble to betray Christ at Olivet : " Here 
Jhesus with his dyscipulis goth into the place, and 
ther xal come in a x. personys weyl be-seen in white 
arneys, and breganderes, and some dysgysed in odyr 

*5 Compare Sharp, Loc. cit., p. 30. 



ACTORS AND THEIR COSTUMES 247 

garmentes, with swerdys, gleyvys, and other 
straunge wepons, as cressettys, with feyr and lan- 
ternys and torchis lyth ".^^ 

Summary. We have thus reviewed what 
little is known of the actors and their costumes on 
the Corpus Christi stage. From this little, however, 
is discernible something of the richness and the 
splendor with which the players decorated them- 
selves, without care for the appropriateness, his- 
torical or otherwise, of the costumes selected. From 
this, too, we have seen how the appeal of the actors 
and their apparel was made to the eye and to the 
emotions rather than to the educated mind, and, 
hence, how the pageant-masters could be content to 
dress their players in incongruous, anachronistic 
costumes. Symbolism of a vague and uncertain 
kind was used, but the fundamental appeal to the 
eye and the esthetic tastes of the people was made 
through the richness and the bright coloring of the 
costumes. 

46 Compare Halliwell, Coventry Mysteries, p. 283. 



VIII 
THE PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 

Introductory. To one living in the palmy 
days of the Corpus Christi festival in the last quar- 
ter of the fifteenth century it would probably have 
seemed impossible that the glory of the day could 
ever pass away ; and yet a century later the pageants 
were a thing of the past. The death of the plays 
had been slow and perhaps imperceptible, but never- 
theless sure. Nor was this death due, as many have 
thought, either to the expense incident to the pro- 
duction of the plays or to the varying wealth, 
growth, or decline of the guilds, but rather to an 
entire change of thought and religious feeling in the 
English nation. That this is true may be seen 
from a cursory glance at the plays and their audi- 
ences in the earlier and later years of the Corpus 
Christi festival. 

Popularity of the Pageants. In the institution 
and gradual spread of the Corpus Christi plays in 
England shortly after 131 1 there is no doubt that 
the serious interest of the people was involved 
spiritually, or religiously, as well as for the sake 
of recreation. One cannot understand these plays 
otherwise; this is the note that stands out from all 

248 



PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 249 

the rest in the thousand days of pardon granted by- 
Pope Clement to " euery person that resorted peace- 
ably to see the same playes ", in the wills of dying 
men leaving money and garments for the pageants, 
in the by-laws of the guilds that their plays should 
be " in honour of God the Father Almighty, and the 
most glorious Virgin Mary, and to the honor of 
the glorious confessor St. John of Beverley, and All 
Saints ", and in the enactments of the towns that 
" every yerr forever " their plays should be pro- 
duced. Then when one adds to the religious motive 
the other one, that the festival was the great holiday 
for the representation of the " pageants of delight ", 
one may understand what a hold the plays had on 
the people. This was the season for the religious 
and the fun-maker, for the priest and the people, 
and for the nobleman and the artisan. Its annual 
return was hailed with delight and unbounded 
pleasure by persons of every rank and station, and 
the personal interest of every patriotic citizen in the 
success of the pageants was felt in every prepara- 
tion and every leet. And it was only after a long 
and protracted struggle that the people of Eng- 
land were finally willing to relinquish the holiday 
which for three centuries had been the greatest 
religious and public celebration of the year. 

Cause of their Death. The real cause of the 
death of the Corpus Christi plays, however, is not 
far to seek. It was not the expense or the changes 
in the formation of the trades guilds — these mat- 



250 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

ters had been successfully battled with in the early- 
days of the pageants, — but a gradual revulsion of 
feeling on the part of the people, due to the work 
of religious reformers and the changing spirit of the 
age. The dean of York, Dr. Matthew Hutton, ex- 
pressed this in his letter to the mayor and city coun- 
cil of York in 1568 on their asking him for his ad- 
vice as to the suitableness of the plays for repre- 
sentation. Dr. Hutton's reply was as follows : 

Sal. in Christo. My most humble dewtie vouched. I 
have perused the bokes that your lordshipp with your 
brethren sent me, and as I finde manie thinges that I 
muche like because of th'antiquities, so see I manie 
thinges that I can not allowe because they be disagreinge 
from the senceritie of the gospell, the which thinges, yf 
they shuld either be altogether cancelled or altered into 
other matters, the wholle drift of the play shuld be altered, 
and therefore I dare not put my pen unto it, because I 
want both skill and leasure to amende it, thoghe in good 
will I assure you yf I were worthie to geve your lord- 
shipp and your right worshipfull brethren consell, suerlie 
mine advise shuld be that it shuld not be plaid, ffor thoghe 
it was plawsible to yeares agoe, and wold now also of the 
ignorant sort be well liked, yet now in this happie time 
of the gospell, I knowe the learned will mislike it, and 
how the state will beare with it, I know not. Thus be- 
inge bold to utter mine opinion unto your lordshippe, I 
committ you and your brethren to the tuition of God's 
spirit. From Thorneton the 27 of Marche, 1568. 
Your Lordshipps in Christ to comaunde, 

Math. Hutton. 

To the right honorable my Lorde Mayor 
of York and the right worshipfull his 
brethren, geve this.^ 

1 Davies, York Records, pp. 267-8. 



PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 251 

This is the same spirit, too, or air of superior 
knowledge, that was expressed in the banes to the 
Chester plays at the time of the attempted revival 
of the plays in 1600. — 



As all that shall see them, shall most welcome 
be, 

soe all that here them, wee most humble praye 
not to compare this matter or Storie 
with the age or tyme wherin we presentlye 
staye, 

but in the tyme of Ignorance wherin we did 
straye ; 

Then doe I compare that this land throughout 
non had the like nor the like dose sett out. 
If the same be likeinge to the comons all, 
then our desier is to satisfie — for that is all our 

game — 
yf noe matter or shewe therof speciall 
doe not please, but misslike the most of the 

trayne, 
goe backe I saye to the firste tyme againe, 
then shall you finde : the fyne witt, at this day 

aboundinge, 
at that day and that age had verye small be- 

inge.^ 

Deimling, Chester Plays, p. 3. 



252 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

Change of Feeling Gradual. The abandon- 
ment of the plays, however, had not been accom- 
pHshed without a protracted struggle and with the 
utmost reluctance, a reluctance which had extended 
over an entire century. But the change was as cer- 
tain and as sure as it was gradual, and may perhaps 
be first noticed in the guilds evading their pageant 
duties, in their complaining at the expense of the 
plays, and in their petitions to the city councils to 
" exonerate and discharge theym of and for 
the bringinge forthe " of their scenes. In their 
earlier days the pageants had been an honor and 
a pleasure to be sought after; later they were a 
burden and an expense. Then came the variation 
of the plays and the substitution of new ones, the 
Corpus Christi cycles giving place to the Pater 
Noster and the Creed plays, allegorical productions, 
which were substituted for the regular pageants. 
Within the Corpus Christi cycle, too, changes 
gradually became evident and *' certen pagyauntes 
[were made] excepte, that is to say, the deyng of 
our lady, the assumption of our lady, and the cor- 
onacion of our lady". Then came the temporary 
suspension of the plays for certain years, because 
the king had visited the city earlier in the season 
and pageants had been given on that occasion, or be- 
cause the plague had broken out in the midst of the 
people. In their earlier years the plays had gone 
forward in spite of the plague, and the mayor and 
aldermen, as for instance at Lincoln, had even fur- 



PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 253 

nished the costumes in order that the holiday might 
not be lacking. But by the middle of the sixteenth 
century we find the council at York suspending the 
performances in consideration of the plague then 
raging and devoting half of their pageant silver 
to those " visited with the syknesse which is nowe 
dangerouse in the citie ". Only half of the play 
money was given, however; the rest was so much 
saved. And finally came the royal opposition, which 
was first evident in the last years of the reign of 
Henry VHI, when the religious guilds and fraterni- 
ties were placed at the disposal of the crown. The 
plays were continued with some degree of regu- 
larity, however, during the reign of his successors, 
Edward VI and Mary, but on the accession of 
Elizabeth the opposition of the civic authorities 
became directly apparent, although they were com- 
pelled occasionally to comply with the demands of 
the people of " the lesser sort ". From now on, 
however, the plays were produced only by a special 
leet of the city, where heretofore they had been 
omitted only by a special leet. And while from the 
accession of Elizabeth on to the close of the cen- 
tury sporadic revivals of interest in the plays are 
to be noticed in the towns throughout the kingdom, 
the principles of the Reformation had worked with 
telling effect and every outburst of interest was 
little more than a spark of the old-time splendor. 

In the Separate Towns. This passing of the 
pageants had not progressed with equal uniformity 



254 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

of course in all the towns. At Ipswich, for instance, 
the plays are reported under date of Jan. 30, 1531, 
as " laide for ever aside by order ", though as late 
as 1542 " every householder, wth their family " was 
required to follow the pageants in the procession 
and " every Warden and Master of the Trade " was 
assessed id. for " their Pageants uppon the day of 
Corp' Chr'i ". At Chester, however, the pageants 
continued until 1574, and at Coventry until 1580. 
The fate of most of the pageant-wagons is probably 
told in the story of the grocers' car at Norwich. — 

Item, yt is to be noted that for asmuch as for pe space 
of 8 yeris ther was neyther Semblye nor metynge, in pe 
meane season pe Pageante remaynynge 6 yeris in pe Gate 
bowse of Mr. John Sotherton, of London, untyll pe ferme 
came to 20s ; and bycause pe Surveiors in Mr. Sotherton's 
tyme would not dysburs ani moni therfor, pe Pageante 
was sett oute in pe Strete & so remayned at pe Black 
fryers brydge in open strete, when bothe yt was so 
weather beaten, pat pe cheife parte was rotton; wher- 
upon Mr. John Oldrich, then Maior pe yer 1570, together 
with Mr. Tho. Whall, Alderman, offred yt to pe Com- 
pany to sell for the some of 20. s. [sic], and when no per- 
son wold buy yt for pat price and pat yt styll remayned, & 
nowe one pece therof rent of & now another as was lyke 
all to come to nothinge, Nicholas Sotherton, then offycer 
to Mr. Maior, was requested to take yt in peces for the 
dept dewe to hym for pe seyd howse ferm therof for 6 
yeres aforesayde, at 3s 4d. a yer, who accordinglye dyd 
take downe pe same & bowsed yt accordinglye.^ 

Such was the disposition made of the grocers* 

wagon at Norwich and such was that, no doubt, 

3 Waterhouse, Non-Cycle Mystery Plays, pp. xxxii-iii. 



PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 255 

of many another one in England, if the history of 
all could be known. 

Coventry. At Coventry complaint was made 
of the expense of the plays as early as 1539. In 
that year the mayor of the city in a letter to Crom- 
well declared the poor commoners were put to such 
expense with their plays that they fared the worse 
all the year after. But the festival had such vogue 
among the citizens that the plays held out until 1580 
when they seem to have been " laid down " for all 
time. In 1584, a new pageant, the Destruction of 
Jerusalem, was given, and the songs to the shearmen 
and tailors' play, which are dated 1591, rather sug- 
gest that an attempt probably was made to revive 
the regular cycle in that year, but of the plays after 
1580 we have no further proof or mention. Cer- 
tainly all the crafts could not have taken part in 
the attempted revival in 1591 ; for some of the 
pageants had been sold in 1586 and 1587. In 1596, 
however, the cappers were disposing of their " bysh- 
opps hodds " and the " furrs of players gowns ", 
and the weavers had " players aparell " to rent as 
late as 1607. The last heard of the pageants is 
in a note from the city annals in 1628 that, " On 
the 1st daye of August 1628 being Lamas daye, 
certaine of or poore Com'oners rose, and pulled 
downe the hedges of a peece of the Comon ground 
at whitley at the hether end next to Barnes 
[Barons] close wch in former tyme was inclosed 
and taken out of the Comons their, to defraye some 



256 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

charges for the Pageants playing here in this Cytty, 
and Midsummer watch, wch said Pageants and 
watch have bine put downe many yeares since, and 
yett the said peece of Com'on ground has remayned 
severall and inclosed untill now ".* 

Minor Cycles. At Bungay a similar destruc- 
tion of the pageant-cars had been made more than 
a century before, when somebody the night after 
Corpus Christi in 1514 "brake and threw down 
five pageants of the said inhabitants, that is to saye, 
hevyn pagent, the pagent of all the world, Paradyse 
pagent, Bethlehem pagent, and helle pagent, the 
whyche wer ever wont tofore to be caryed abowt 
the seyd town upon the seyd daye in the honor of 
the blissyd Sacrement ". The plays continued, 
however, until sometime in the last quarter of the 
century, the last note we have of them being in 1591. 
At Beverley it is known that the " comon place " 
were in existence as late as 1555, but no trace has 
been found of them at a later date. At Hereford 
the pageants disappeared sooner. " At a law-day 
holden at the cytey of Hereford before John 
Warnecombe, esquyer, mayor, the tenth day of De- 
cember, the second yere of our sovereign lord Ed- 
ward the Syxt ", 1548, it was agreed that the " cor- 
poracions of artificers, craftes, and occupacions in 
the cytey, who were bound by the grauntes of their 
corporacions yerely to bring forthe and set forward 
dyvers pageaunttes of ancient history in the proces- 

4 Sharp, Coventry Mysteries, p. 12. 



PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 257 

sions of the cytey upon the day and feast of Corpus 
Xpi, which now is and are omitted and surceased " 
should pay an annual sum toward the expenses of 
"the ruynous and decayed causeys, pavements, 
streets, and walls, cleansing the town ditch or such 
like reparations ".^ 

Chester. At Chester the plays lasted until 
1574, but the last thirty years of their career was 
a checkered one. In 1546, I55i» i554, 1561, IS^?* 
1568, 1569, 1 57 1 and 1574 the pageants had been 
produced, but the performances of 1571 and 1574 
had aroused all the virile enmity of an awakened 
church. In 1571, the Rogers's tell us in their 
Breauarye, "the Maior [John Hankey] would 
needs have the Playes (commonly called Chester 
Playes) to go forward, against the wills of the 
Bishops of Canterbury, York, and Chester". A 
special inhibition even " was sent from the Arch- 
bishop to stay them, but it came too late ". And 
again in 1574 Sir John Savage " caused the Popish 
Plays of Chester, to be played the Sunday, Munday, 
Tuesday and Wednesday after Mid-sommer-day, in 
contempt of an Inhibition and the Primats Letters 
from York, and from the Earl of Huntington". 
Some of the plays were omitted, however, those 
" which were thought might not be justified, for the 
superstition th^t was in them". The Breauary 
tells us, too, that 1574 was the last year of the 
pageants in Chester. 

5 Johnson, Ancient Customs of Hereford, pp. 119-20. 



258 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

York. As at Chester, so at York, the same 
losing battle was fought for the plays. In the early- 
fifties the plays had been suspended on account of 
the plague, and again in 1564, 1565, and 1566 they 
were dropped for similar reasons. When they 
came to be resumed in 1568 serious doubts were 
entertained as to the suitability of the old plays 
for public representation; and it was on this occa- 
sion that Dr. Hutton wrote the letter quoted above 
about the changed spirit of the times. Because of 
this letter the city council voted " to have no play 
this yere, and the booke of the Creyde play to be 
dely veryd in agayn " ; and, though the " dy verse 
comoners of the citie were muche desyreous to have 
Corpuscrysty play this yere ", the festival seems 
to have gone by without any pageants. In 1569 the 
pageants were produced on Whit-Tuesday, and in 
1572 the Pater Noster play was given "on the 
Thursday next after Trynitie Sonday " ; but the 
regular Corpus Christi pageants do not seem to have 
been seriously agitated again until 1575, when a 
committee was sent from the city council to the 
archbishop to see about correcting the plays and 
having them ready " before Lammas next ". Noth- 
ing further was heard from the committee, however, 
and we may suppose that their application to the 
archbishop was not successful. Thus the matter 
lay dormant until 1579, when it was agreed by the 
council that the plays should be given again, but 
" first the booke shalbe caried to my Lord Arche- 



PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 259 

bisshop [Sandys] and Mr. Deane [Hutton] to cor- 
recte, if that my Lord Archebisshop doo well like 
theron ". Apparently he did not " well like ther- 
on", however; for the plays were not given that 
summer and the subject was again dropped until 
the following year, 1580, when the citizens made 
a final effort to revive the pageants and "did 
earnestly request of my Lord Mayor and others 
the worshipful assemblee that Corpus Xpi play 
might be played this yere ". A new mayor was 
now in office, however, and he coldly replied that 
" he and his brethren would consider of their re- 
quest ".^ This is the last mention of the plays at 
York, although the bakers were still choosing 
pageant-masters as late as 1656. 

Substituted Plays. At Lincoln the same in- 
terest in and reaction against the plays is to be found 
in the course of the centuries. Here, however, the 
interest of the citizens seem never to have been so 
much centered in plays of the strictly biblical type ; 
for from before the close of the fourteenth century 
their pageants were varying between the Pater 
Noster, St. Laurence, St. Susanna, King Robert of 
Cecily, Santa Clara, and Corpus Christi plays. And 
even as early as 1564 their "Popish Plays" had 
already been replaced by a semi-religious " standing 
play of some story of the Bible". The subject 
chosen was " the story of Toby ", and the citizens 
seem to have attempted to supplant the zeal and 

« Davies York Records, pp. 268-72. 



260 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 

earnestness of the Corpus Christi plays with the 
show and ornamentation of the new subject. Other 
towns, too, were constrained to gratify the wishes 
of their citizens with substituted pageants. At 
Coventry, where the regular plays were shelved, as 
we have seen, in 1580, the Destruction of Jeru- 
salem, a semi-religious, semi-historical play had to 
be substituted four years later; and again in the 
nineties the History of King Edward the Confessor 
and the Conquest of the Danes were offered as al- 
ternatives for the Destruction of Jerusalem. 

Conclusion. Thus we have seen that long be- 
fore the beginning of the seventeenth century all 
the regular Corpus Christi plays had come to an end 
and their places had either been taken by semi- 
religious, semi-historical scenes, or else had been 
left vacant. It is fair to say, however, that none 
of the substituted plays seem to have given the 
same keen delight or to have been undertaken with 
the old time religious zeal that had attended the 
representation of the regular Corpus Christi plays. 
This was natural, too. In the earlier plays the pro- 
duction of the pageants had been attended with a 
sense of religious duty as well as of pleasure, and 
the actors and the citizens had felt that they were 
doing themselves and their visitors a spiritual 
service in thus portraying the scenes of the Bible. 
The plays were a duty as well as a pleasure. But 
in the new semi-historical plays the spiritual ele- 
ment was absent and the whole motive was on a 



PASSING OF THE PAGEANTS 261 

lower plane. Thus the richness and the splendor 
of the pageants was kept up after the biblical scenes 
were gone, but there was never again the spiritual 
and religious fervor of the earlier days. The Cor- 
pus Christi plays had fulfilled their mission; they 
were creatures of a single age killed by the sophis- 
tication of a new era. 



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INDEX 



Actors : 
addressing their audi- 
ences, 192-93 
costumes, 216-19 
entertainment, 214 
feigning sleep, 202 
female, 215 
in the procession, 81 
kneeling in prayer, 193-95 
non-speaking, 199 
personnel, 55-57 
playing double parts, 211- 

requirements of, 210, 215 
selection of, 55, 57 
sitting on stage, 153, 201 
traveling, 56 
Adam, costume, 220-22 
Adam, play, 225 
Addresses, direct, to audi- 
ence, 192 
Albright. V, E., 88, 89, 120- 
22, 123, 140, 141, 146, 
149, 156-60, 161 w, 164, 
170 
Anachronisms, 189-90, 219 
Angels, costumes, 231 
Anima Christi, 235 
Annas, costume, 242 
Antiphons, 197 
Aquinas, St. Thomas, 10 
Arneway, John, 13 
Assessments for pageants, 

27 
Assignments of plays, 34-37 
Banes, 42 



Bates, K. L., 4, 6 
Beverley : 
earliest record of plays, 

13 
Corpus Christi guild, 20- 

21 
mimetic pageants, 70 
Paradise, play, 176-77 
play by the " worthies," 

36-37 

Bibliography, 262 

Birmingham Free Refer- 
ence Library burned, 4 

Brome plays, 15 

Caiaphas, costume, 242 
Cambises, 205 
Canterbury Marching 

Watch, 205 
Chambers, E. K. : 
mentioned, 4, 6, 13, 39, 

138, 220 
quoted, 46n, 120, 225-26 
Characters : 
minor, 245 
non-speaking, 199 
Chester : 
earliest record of plays, 12 
plays, 15,. 49 

plays discussed, 89-93, 
116, 147-51. 165-66, 
178-79. 257 
plays quoted, 90, 96. 138, 
185, 188-89, 192-93. 204, 
237, 251 
Choristers, 109 



271 



272 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 



Christ : 

character, 206, 232 
costumes, 234 
spirit, 235 
City council, supervision 
over pageants, 26, 29, 
33, 37 
Clement V. Pope, 10 
Colclow, Thom's, 52 
Collier, J. Payne, 8, 119 
Confusion of terms, medie- 
val, 6 
Cornish plays, 176 
Corpus Christi cycle of 
plays : 
incongruities, 107, no 
influence of the liturgical 

drama, 1 10-12 
merging of old scenes, 

109 
new scenes, 108 
Corpus Christi festival : 
entertainment of visitors, 

32 
expenses on the city, 30, 

32 
growth, II 
length, 104 
origin, 10, 61 
plays at, 12, 76 
spirit, 75 

street cleaning for, 44 
Corpus Christi guilds, 11- 

12, 20-21 
Corpus Christi plays: 
annual production, 33 
assessments for, 27 
assignment of, 34, 36 
attitude toward, 25, 75, 

117, 249-53, 260-61 
changes, 108, 109, 112 
commercial profit, 16-17 
conflict with procession, 
9-10, 76-77 



control by religious 

guilds, 19 
control by trades guilds, 

19-20, 21-23 
cost, 97, 98 
death, 248-61 
defined, 8-10 
development, 69, 73, 108, 

IIO-III 

earliest mention, 12, 13 

establishment, 12 

expenses, 28, 30 

geographical extent, 15 

historical study impos- 
sible, 3 

hostility toward, 250-53 

incongruities, 107, no, 
209 

influence of the liturgical 
drama, 110-12 

meaning, 8-9 

merging of, 109 

music with, 196-99 

new scenes, 108 

number, 104 

order, 45-47 

playing-places, 45-51 

popularity, 14, 248-49 

procession and, 12, 61, 76 

register, 37 

rehearsals, 58 

religious purpose, 16, 75, 
248-49 

responsibility for, 24 

revision, 53-55, 108 

selection of, 37-38 

sources of information 
concerning. 4-6 

stations for, 45-51 

substitution of other 
plays, 259 

supervision by city coun- 
cil, 26 



INDEX 



273 



time required for presen- 
tation, 104 

varying ^ dates for pre- 
sentation, 8 
Corpus Christi procession: 

attendance, 63, 80 

city officials, 79 

control by religious 
guilds, 19-21 

craftsmen, 79-80 

dumb-shows in, 62, 69, yz 

earliest record in Eng- 
land, II 

establishment, 10, 61 

etiquette, 64 

halts, 47 

hour for starting, 62 

mimetic pageants in, 69 

order, 69, 77-81 

players in, 81 

plays and, 9-10, 61, 69, 76 
Corpus Christi shrine, 'j'j 
Corpus Christi stage : 

conventions, 168-208 

crudities, 187-89 

hindrances in studying, 3 

historical study impos- 
sible, 3 

problems, 2 

scenery, 168-69 

symbolism, 169 

women on, 215 
Corpus Christi staging, 
114, 117, 118, 122-23, 
168-70 
Costumes : 

character of, 219, 247 

church vestments, 218 

how procured, 216-19 

purchased, 218 
Coventry plays, 14, 134-36, 
166, 175-76, 179-81, 
197-98, 255 
Craig, H., 4, 6, 50 
Cromwell, Thomas, 18 



Croo, Robert, 38 
Crucifixion scenes, 137-39, 
204-207 

Davidson, C., 69-70 
Davies, R., 4, 5, 61 
Destruction of Jerusalem, 

123, 124-25, 255, 260 
Devil, the, 224, 226-29 
Digby Mysteries, 200 
Disraeli, Curiosities of 

Literature, 233 
Distance, symbolical, 184-86 
Doctors, costumes, 243 
Dublin pageant tableaux, 72 
Dugdale, Sir William, 17, 

84 
Dumb-show pageants, 62 

69-73 
Dundee, dumb-show pag- 
eants, 71 

English Miscellany, An, 6 
Entrances, discussed, 146 
Erghes, John of, 30-31, I77 
Eve, costume, 220-22 
Exits, discussed, 146, 200- 
202 

Fines, 29, 52 
Furnivall, F. J., 4, 5 
Furnivall Miscellany, 6 

Gammer Gurton's Needle, 

226-27 
Gay ley, C. M., 239-41 
God, character, 222 

Hall, Joseph, 211 
Hegge plays, 172-74, 178 
Hell-mouth, 88-94 
Herod, costume, 237 
Holme, R., 128 
Hone, W., 207 
Hutton, Dean Matthew of 
York, 250, 258 



274 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 



Ipswich, city, ii 
Joseph, costume, 246 
Judas, character, 206, 246 
Juliana, Flemish nun, 10 
Jusserand, J. J., S6n 

Knights, costumes, 246 

Ladders used for exits, 201 
Leach, A. F., 4, 5-6, 8oy 

lOOW 

Lincoln, St. Anne's Guild, 

20 
Ludlow church miserere, 93 
Ludus Cov entries, 172-74, 

178 

Magi, costumes, 246 
Manly, John M., 4, I5«, 

86n, 123 
Mary, character, 244 
Matthews, B., 119-20 
McKerrow, R. B., 220-22 
Melton, Friar William, 9 
Mirrour for Magistrates, 

94 
Monologues, 191 
Morris, R. H., 4, 5 
Multiple representation, 

i32-33» 160-62 
Musicians, 199 
Music with the plays, 196 

Newhall, William, 12 
New plays, development, 

108 
Noah, costume, 223 
Non-speaking characters, 

199 
Norwich : 
grocers' pageant, 87, 131, 

176, 254 
plays, 130-31 
Numbers, symbolical, 186- 

87 



Ordish, T. F., 125 

" Original Book," The 37 

Pageants : 

assessments for, 27 

attitude toward, 25 

confusion of meaning, 6-7 

contributory. 23 

control, 19-20 

death, 248-61 

expenses, 28 

popularity, 248-49 

responsibility for, 24 

supervision by city coun- 
cil, 26 
Pageant-houses, loo-ioi 
Pageant-master : 

duties, 29, 51, 52, 55, 60 

fines, 52, 96 
Pageant-wagons : 

cost, 97 

decorations, 95 

description, 83 

" horsing," 102 

houses for, 100 

joint use, loi 

number, 104 

promptness required, 103 

sedes on, 133 

size, 95, 133 

used for sedes, 118 
Paradise, 176-77 
Peter, costume, 245 
Petit de Julleville, L., 74, 

86w, I 12-13 
Picart, B., 11 
Pilate : 

character of, 239 

son of, 246 

wife of, 246 
Platea: 

defined, 112 

properties on, 170-84 

symbolizing distance, 184- 
85 



INDEX 



275 



Play, confusion of mean- 
ing, 6-7 
Play-book, The, 37 
Players in the procession, 8i 
Playing-places, 46, 49-51 

banners for, 45 

rental, 47 
Play letting, 52 
Plymouth, records, 7 
Pollard, A. W., i5n, 54, I30 
Prayers by actors, 193 
Prologues, 195 

Quarrel between weavers 
and cordwainers, York, 
65-69 

Register of plays, 37 
Rehearsals : 

expenses, 58-59 

places, 59 
Revision of plays, 53, 54 
Reynolds, G. F., 170-71, 174 
Rogers Breviary of Chester: 

mentioned, 5, 123, 125- 
128, 222 

quoted, 47, 83, 127, 133, 
218, 223 
Rotation speeches, 190-91 

Sackville, Mirrour for 

Magistrates, 94 
Scenery, 132, 168-69 
Scenes : 
merging of old, 109 
new, i^ 
unlocated Corpus Christi. 

170-84 
unlocated Elizabethan, 

170, 178, 183 
unlocated, on the station- 
ary stage, 172 
Sedes: 
defined, 112 
discussed, 118 



on the pageant-wagon, 

133, 168 
Shakspere, WiUiam, i, 113, 

229-30, 237 
Sharp, Thomas : 
Dissertation, 3, 91, 92, 93, 

123, 179-80, 213-14, 228, 

229, 233, 236 
mentioned, 3-4, 6, 86 
Weaver's Pageant, 136 
Shrine, Corpus Christi, 77 
Simultaneous scenery, 132, 

160 
Sleep, feigned, 202 
Smith, L. T., 4, 5, 130, 141, 

211, 213 
Songs and antiphons, 197 
Souls, costumes, 229-31 _ 
Sources of information 

concerning Corpus 

Christi plays, 4 
Sprott, Thomas, 11 
Stage conventions, 168-208 
Station banners, 45 
Station renting, 47 
Street cleaning, 44 
Strutt, J., 84 
Substituted plays, 259 
Symbolical distance, 184-86 
Symbolical numbers, 186- 

Symbolism, 169 

" Telescoping " of scenes, 

109 
Thomas of India, costume, 

245 
Time symbolism, 187 
Tormentors, costumes. 244 
1 owneley plays : 
discussed, 115, 129-30, 

151-56, 159-60. 181-83 
mentioned. 15 
quoted. 115. 129, I37, 186, 
229 



276 CORPUS CHRISTI PAGEANTS 



Trades guilds: 
adaptation of plays to, 

34-36 
assessments, 27 
associate, 23 
attitude toward the plays, 

25 
distinguishing marks, 23 
fines, 29, 30 
livery, 23 

pageant control by. 21 
patron saint, 35 

Unlocated scenes, 170-84 
Urban IV, Pope, 10 

Valenciennes Passion, S6n, 

93 
Veximiel Passion, 207 



Visions, 203 

Waits, 39-44 
Ward, A. W., 8 
Warton, T., 8, 220 
Waterhouse, O., 131-32 
Wiclif, John, 7 

York: 
Corpus Christi Guild, 20- 

21 
plays discussed, 15, 90- 

93, 139-46, 157-59, 162- 

165, 166, 175-76, i88;2, 

258 
plays quoted, 90, 137, 202, 

212-13, 224-25 
quarrel between weavers 

and cordwainers, 65-69 



One copy del. to Cat. Div. 
DEC J9 }fu 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



